Customs officials have seized 80 gold bars weighing 9.33kg from underneath a seat of a Flydubai aircraft at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

The Customs House, Dhaka, said on Thursday said tipped off, its officials conducted a search in Flydubai flight FZ523 after it arrived at the airport at around 9:20pm on Wednesday.

During the search, they found several objects wrapped in black Scotch tape concealed underneath seat 19A.

The packages were taken to the customs hall and inventoried in the presence of representatives of different agencies.

The estimated market value of the seized gold is around Tk 20 crore, according to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The gold bars were found abandoned and had been concealed under the aircraft seat in a highly concealed manner, apparently to evade applicable customs duties and taxes and smuggle them into Bangladesh, said the NBR.

Customs officials said the consignment could have been taken outside the airport through any route if it had not been detected.

The operation was conducted jointly by the Customs House, Dhaka, and various intelligence agencies.

The seized gold bars were immediately deposited at the airport customs’ valuables warehouse.

A criminal case was filed with Airport Police Station in connection with the seizure.