Koreans caught smuggling 2,348kg of gold in 'private parts'

Confiscated gold bars are displayed at the Incheon main customs centre on Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Eom Da-sol

Dozens of Korean citizens were caught smuggling 2,348 kilograms of gold hidden in their "private parts," the Korea Customs Service (KCS) said on Tuesday. It was the nation's biggest smuggling bust.

Fifty-one people, including several housewives, were apprehended at Incheon International Airport early last month. The smuggling had been happening for about two years.

Male smugglers were hiding five or six gold bars (3cm x 3cm), each weighting 200 grams, in their rectums while the women hid the gold in their rectums or vaginas.

The value of the gold was about 113.5 billion won ($100 million) ― the highest value of gold confiscated in a single smuggling case.

The smuggling happened from March 2015 and the gold came from Tokyo and China's Yantai.

Korea's gold price is usually higher than many countries because of a 15 percent additional tax imposed on gold products, according to the KCS.

"Gold smuggling is a business people can make money easily from because of the price gap," a KCS official said. "As our crackdown gets tougher, smugglers are also getting more sophisticated in hiding gold or other jewelry products they want to bring in."

The official said the KCS will soon launch a special task force to implement a sweeping crackdown on gold smugglers.

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