Gold smugglers caught red-handed

Gold bars to the value of almost R3 million was confiscated from a man arriving at King Shaka International Airport.

Durban - Gold, worth almost R3 million was confiscated at the King Shaka International Airport last week, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) said on Thursday.

SARS customs officials found the gold in the pockets and a moneybag of a male passenger – disembarking from Dubai – who was hiding it under a Kurta worn over his clothing.

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.

The case is still under investigation and the suspect has not yet appeared in court.

Also in Durban, as part of a random search, custom officials scanned an airmail parcel posted in the Netherlands to a Durban address. The content had been declared as a “car cover/plant cover/dog bag E130”.

The parcel was selected for further investigation after the scan revealed what appeared to be a large amount of tablets in square packages.

They had been carefully stuck and neatly folded into plastic bags with outer advertising packaging falsely indicating that the package was car or plant covers.

The tablets have since been confirmed to be Ecstasy with a street value of about R310 000. The packets weighing 1.8kg, have been handed over to the police.

ANA