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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMan busted smuggling $40k of gold under wig and inside rectum.
A man was arrested by customs officials at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Monday after he was caught trying to smuggle melted-down gold worth around 3,055,000 Indian Rupees ($39,947), The Times of India reported.
The man, who has not been identified, concealed the gold in a pouch hidden beneath a wig he was wearing, a customs official said, per The Times of India.
He also had two capsule-shaped pouches of gold lodged inside his rectum, the customs official added, per the newspaper.
A video, shared by Delhi Customs, shows the wig being cut away to reveal a pouch of melted gold glued to the top of his bald head.
Link to tweet
Ill pass on the rectum video.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)What a rookie move
DFW
(54,372 posts)Gold, if pure, doesnt set them off. It is non-ferrous and non-conductive. Imaging would detect it immediately, of course. From the article, I got that the guy was leaving the UAE, where gold is free of tax, to India, where it is not. The article spoke of customs in Delhi having made the bust. When you have 10 or 15 ounces of metal glued to your head, Ill bet there is a drastic change in posture, which experienced customs officers used to gold smugglers would have spotted.
Smuggling gold out of the UAE to India past Indian import taxes is not unusual or new. Nor is getting caught.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)I definitely didn't know pure gold wouldn't set off metal detectors!
DFW
(54,372 posts)I know some guys that do high value security transportation here in Europe, and they told me once during a hey, did you know? session. One of them was bringing a large group of gold coins somewhere from Switzerland, where the scanners are state of the art, and he told the person at the monitor his valise was very heavy. The security person looked and commented, yes, its heavy, but its not dangerous. Some scanners are so sophisticated, they can detect WHICH metal any object is composed of. I have heard that India has a preference for old British gold sovereigns minted under Edward VII, which would be coins dated 1902-1910, but they are only 91.7% pure, and maybe the 8.3% copper in the alloy WOULD be enough to set off a metal detector if there were enough of them. No idea. In general, I dont tend to travel with my pockets full of British sovereigns from Edward VII. Almost never, in fact
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)too easy.
yonder
(9,664 posts)jmowreader
(50,557 posts)...or does that gold seem (1) the wrong color and (2) awfully flexible for metal? It looks more like the filling they sell for lemon-flavored jelly donuts to me.
red dog 1
(27,797 posts)(I had 2 Cadillacs, but my ol' lady rectum both)