by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Wed February 15, 2017
On Sunday, a man was arrested at an Indian airport after customs agents discovered two pounds of gold hidden inside his rectum.
According to The Times of India, the 36-year-old male traveler was attempting to pass through Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India, when members of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) used metal detectors to reveal that he was concealing gold in his baggage and inside his rectum.
The unnamed suspect from Tamil Nadu was arriving in Hyderabad from Singapore when a security x-ray drew the attention of agents, and he was taken into custody by customs officials. Upon searching his luggage, agents found eight gold bars weighing an estimated 800 grams hidden inside the back covers of several LED lamps.
After questioning him about the gold previously discovered, customs officials then subjected the man to an additional metal detector screening and found more gold bars weighing 1.2 kilograms hidden inside his rectal cavity.
In total, the man was discovered with two kilograms-almost 4.5 pounds-of gold inside his luggage and body. The gold is estimated to be worth around $88,000.
Security officers at airports are trained to look for travelers smuggling gold. In 2015, a North Korean diplomat named Son Young Nam was arrested at a Bangladesh airport for attempting to smuggle almost 60 pounds of gold into the country. The confiscated gold was worth an estimated $1.67 million.
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