The Border Security Force on Monday night seized gold bars and biscuits valued at Rs 14 crore and weighing 23kg and foiled an attempt to smuggle gold to India through a porous Indo-Bangladesh border near Bagdah in North 24-Parganas.

BSF sources said acting on a tip-off, troops caught an Indian smuggler, identified as Indrajit Patra, 23, along with 66 gold blocks, while he was on the way to deliver the consignment to a jeweller in Bongaon town.

The accused smuggler is a resident of Kulia village at Bagdah block in North 24 Parganas, who is involved with the gold smuggling n etwork for a long. The man was later handed over to the police. BSF deposited the seized gold items to customs authority in Bagdah.

A spokesperson for the BSF’s South Bengal Frontier in Calcutta said, “Acting on a tip-off, we laid a trap at a strategic location and intercepted the smuggler carrying a huge amount of gold on his bike. While checking his motorcycle, we found the gold items lodged inside the vehicle’s air filter.”

During interrogation, the smuggler claimed to have been engaged by a man to deliver gold blocks from his home in a Ranghat village to Bangaon for a monthly contract of Rs 15,000.

BSF DIG A.K.Arya said, “It appears that notorious smugglers are now trapping poor people by luring them with money.”

Preliminary investigation revealed that a section of jewellery makers in North 24-Parganas are regular customers of smuggled gold, which they bring using the smuggling network.

“Such gold bars are mostly brought in from Arabian countries by Bangladeshi smugglers, who eventually send those to India with the support of their counterparts here,” he added.

Last year, BSF’s South Bengal Frontier had seized 114 kg of gold on the India-Bangladesh border and this year’s haul has been 120 kg so far.