Smuggler had 48 gold bars in his pockets
Durban Sars officials confiscated forty-eight gold bars from the pockets of a passenger disembarking from a Dubai flight.
|||Durban - Forty-eight gold bars have been found in a passenger’s pockets by observant customs officials at the King Shaka International Airport.
The man was disembarking from a Dubai flight last week, and was searched after being profiled by the customs passengers team, said South African Receiver of Revenue (Sars) spokesman, Sandile Memela.
The gold, said to be worth about R3 million, was found in the man’s pockets, hiding under a kurta, a loose, collarless shirt.
“Although nothing untoward was found in his luggage, the ‘bulging pockets’ under his kurta convinced an alert official to inspect further.
“He found 48 gold bars weighing 5.6kg in the passenger’s pockets and a money bag wrapped around his waist,” Memela said.
The man had not yet been charged because police investigations were still in progress, said Memela.
He told the Daily News it was the first time gold had been confiscated from a passenger at King Shaka International.
Customs officials at the customs mail centre in Durban found ecstasy tablets in an airmail parcel posted in the Netherlands to a Durban address.
Memela said this was found after a random search at the mail centre.
Officials scanned the parcel and it was selected for further investigation after the scan showed what appeared to be a large amount of tablets in square packages.
He said the content was declared as a “car cover/plant cover/dog bag E130”.
“Officials subsequently found several packets of white tablets taped to the products. “
“The tablets were stuck on to brown and black sticky tape to form two packages, which were glued to the inside of both the car cover and plant cover, and thereafter folded neatly into plastic bags with outer advertising packaging confirming the products to be a car and plant cover respectively,” Memela said.
The pills were confirmed to be ecstasy.
The packets, Memela said, weighed 1.8kg and had a street value of about R310 000.
Police were investigating.
Memela said smuggling of prohibited and restricted goods in the international mail centres was “very common”.
“The contraventions range from false declarations, under valuation of goods, smuggling of Cites (protected wildlife), smuggling of narcotics and counterfeit goods.”
Daily News
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