Passengers who manages to smuggle gold and other precious items into airports and other high-security areas know various ways in which the security personnel can be tricked. From hiding it within layers of a suitcase to putting in the soles of their shoes, the CISF personnel is equally aware of all these methods.
On Tuesday morning, the Central Industrial Security Force was in for a dilemma when they caught hold of a man with a packet consisting of a yellow paste tied to his abdomen, the Hindustan Times reported.
The incident took place around 4:30 am on Tuesday when the passenger arrived at the Delhi T3 terminal- Indira Gandhi International Airport to board a connecting flight to Mumbai. When he went on for further pre-embarkation security check, the security personnel were in for a shock. They had almost believed that paste that the man was carrying was nothing but ¡®human excreta¡¯ due to the material¡¯s sticky nature.
Representational Image of Gold paste
Reportedly, the packet consisted of 650 grams of gold paste, a substance that is quite similar to human excreta in appearance. The reason behind the man masking the gold paste below his waist was to evade the customs at Delhi airport.
However, the metal detector at the security machine had raised an alarm. The officials then decided to check the packet under the metal scanner and a dense blue image appeared on the monitor which is how gold is detected in X-Ray scanners.
The paste was handed over for further probe. The passenger was let off because the price of the gold didn¡¯t exceed Rs 20 lakh. HT further reported that to extract the metal, the paste is heated using kerosene or any other flammable liquid.
Photo: BCCL
In July this year, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had nabbed a passenger at the Hyderabad International Airport carrying 1.850 kg of gold paste.
Gold paste is considered one of the most easiest and safest ways of smuggling gold into other countries. Without specific intelligence or any clue given by the smuggler himself, it becomes next to impossible to detect gold in the form of a paste.