by Donald Wood
Last updated: 1:12 PM ET, Wed October 11, 2017
Customs agents working at an airport in India discovered 29 passengers hid gold in an odd place.
According to The Guardian, security officers at the Madurai Airport in Tamil Nadu found more than 22 pounds of gold on at least 37 passengers aboard the two flights arriving in India from Sri Lanka.
Some of the passengers hid the gold in their carry-on luggage or inside children's strollers, but India's Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said 29 people were discovered with the precious metal hidden in their rectums.
Indian government officials said the gold was discovered after a "thorough examination."
In total, customs agents confiscated more than $46,000 worth of gold, but since none of the smugglers were caught carrying enough metal to meet the criminal threshold, they were all released from police custody.
"The uniqueness of this case is that huge numbers of people concealed the gold in their rectums," a DRI spokesperson said in a statement. "Rectum concealment by this many guys is a first."
The DRI spokesperson also said Sunday's bust was not the largest, referencing a 2015 operation that discovered 141 pounds of gold smuggled by three entire planeloads of passengers.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Man Caught Smuggling Gold in Rectum at Indian Airport[/READMORE]
Thus far in 2017, Indian officials revealed they have discovered over 660 pounds of smuggled gold and made dozens of arrests, including $30,000 worth of gold inside the rectum of a 45-year-old man from Sri Lanka during September.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
