Distress gives them away
A 33-year-old passenger who landed here from Dubai was under watch from the time he entered the airport in Dubai. The ‘informers’ who had been tracking his movements there alerted their counterparts at the RGI Airport. He was intercepted here and subjected to questioning.
His strange facial movements, discomfort while walking and embarrassment when he was held for questioning, as also his past travel history, convinced officials that he had things to hide. A round of questioning led to the revelation that he was carrying gold in his rectum.
Officials say that any person carrying gold in his rectum would experience extreme discomfiture, and this shows up in his movements. Any experienced officer can identify them. Such people can conceal a maximum of 1.2kg of gold in their rectum. The preparation for the insertion starts 48 hours before the journey. In this time, he would not take solid food and only liquids. This situation will worsen the person’s health, which will be reflected on his face.
After landing, he will be in a hurry to remove the gold bars that he concealed for around 24 hours. This will lead to tension, which would show up on his face. In such cases, though the staff members are permitted to extract the gold concealed in the body parts, the paux will not allow this, and instead would exert pressure inside and eject it.
“They will be sent into a washroom, where they eject the gold bars, wash them clean and dry them. Then, they place the bars in a packet given to them by the sleuths and hand this over to the escort.”
The same was the case with a person who was caught with gold bars concealed in the socks under his feet. “His walk was unusual, which was the first point of suspicion. The feet appearance was also abnormal and the size of the shoe heels had a difference. It’s tough for a normal person to identify this technique, but the customs sleuths who scanned every passenger with their bare eyes from top to bottom, intercepted him and nailed him.”
In cases related to smuggling of gold by concealing it in baggage etc, the officer monitoring the X-ray screen will be able to find this out based on the wavelength displayed on the screen, it can be identified and caught.