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Heather Nauert reports from New York City
Airlines may be charging more to check luggage today, but one flier allegedly resorted to extreme measures to avoid paying an excess fee.
On Sunday, a male traveler was apprehended by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India after metal detectors revealed he was concealing gold bars weighing 1.2 kilograms (about 2 pounds) inside his rectum, according to the Times of India.
The 36-year-old smuggler, originally from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, was arriving from Singapore when officials noticed something unusual in his body. He was taken in for questioning by customs staff who flagged his checked luggage after they spotted what appeared to be LED lamps inside his bag.
AIU seized 2 kg gold from a passenger at RGI Airport in Hyderabad's Shamshabad. Gold bars were concealed in LED lamp fixtures. pic.twitter.com/j0Zv39A7Xi
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 12, 2017
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Officials opened the lamps and discovered eight gold bars, weighing roughly 800 grams, hidden inside the back covers of the lighting equipment.
Upon further questioning, the suspect was asked whether he had more gold, and, after submitting to a metal detector screening, officials found an additional 1.2 kilograms of gold bars inside the man’s rectal cavity.
In all, the man was hiding 2 kilograms of gold-- nearly 4-and-a-half pounds-- worth about $88,000.
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