‘Human waste’ turns out to be gold paste at Delhi IGI airport

NEW DELHI: The packet with a sticky yellow substance, taped to the abdomen of a passenger, had the CISF personnel wrinkling their noses in disgust during a body frisk. What they thought to be human poop was, in fact, something that was literally worth its weight in gold.

The packet contained 650 grams of gold paste, a substance that is quite similar to human excreta in appearance. The man carrying it had taped the package had taped it to his body to evade the customs at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. However, the CISF caught him on Tuesday morning after the metal detector raised the alarm.

Officers said the gold paste consignment is worth about ₹15 lakh in the market. Since the worth of the gold he was carry- ing was less than ₹20 lakh, he could not be arrested under the customs rules, but the gold paste was seized by the CISF.

Officers said to extract the metal, the paste is heated using kerosene or any other flammable liquid.

According to the CISF officers, around 4.30am on Tuesday, the passenger, an Indian, arrived at the airport from Dubai and headed for further pre-embarkation security check to catch a connecting flight to Mumbai from Terminal 1.

“During frisking, a sub-inspector from the CISF detected something under the passenger’s pants as the metal detector beeped. The man was asked to step aside and cooperate with the officers for a detailed check. On manual checking, we found a pouch tied below the man’s waist with a masking tape. When we cut the pouch open, there was a dark yellow paste in it which was initially thought to be human excreta,” a senior CISF officer, who is deployed at the Delhi airport, said. The officer said the paste, once it was confirmed as not being excreta, was again checked under the metal scanner and it showed a dense blue image, which is how gold is detected by X-ray scanners.

Hemendra Singh, assistant inspector general of the CISF, confirmed the incident and said the customs department was informed and the man, and the recovered gold paste, was handed over to them for further probe.

A customs officer said the gold was seized while the passenger was let off as the value of the gold did not exceed ₹20 lakh. “If he pays the duty and penalty, the seized gold will be released on the spot,” the officer said.