Sri Lankan passenger caught smuggling 2 kg of gold in stomach and rectum

Around 2 kg of gold was recovered from the stomach and rectum of a Sri Lankan man, who was detained by customs officials at the airport of the southern Indian city of Vizag on Sunday (1 October).

According to reports, the passenger boarded a Sri Lankan Airways flight from Colombo and landed at the Vizag airport at around 9.30am local time (5am BST). Growing suspicious over his walking style, the officials detained him.

The passenger was taken to King George Hospital where doctors recovered around 16 packets of gold weighing around 125 gm each.

A team of doctors recovered the gold packets from the stomach of the man through natural excretion method using administering laxatives, the New Indian Express newspaper reported.

Hospital superintendent G Arjuna said, "The passenger seems to be a professional smuggler. He might have cut the gold bars into small pieces of 1 to 1.5 inch each and packed them in 16 black polythene packets neatly stitched with a sliding tape which might have helped him swallow them. The sliding tape also ensured the free movement of the packets through the stomach and rectum."

According to reports, a team from Sri Lankan customs officials have arrived in the city and who would accompany the customs officials during the interrogation of the passenger.

"After gathering all the details, we will register cases and proceed further as per the norms," a customs official told the New Indian Express.

Earlier, on 25 September, a 45-year-old Sri Lankan man was arrested for allegedly smuggling gold and jewellery worth 4.5m Sri Lankan rupees ($29,370, £21,700) hidden in his rectum.

The suspect was carrying gold weighing up to 1kg and was held by one of the customs officials who found him walking suspiciously. He was bound for India but was stopped at Colombo's international airport.