Smugglers melted and spray painted $10 million in gold to look like machine parts

[billdeserthills]

Hong Kong Customs on March 27 detected a suspected case of large-scale gold smuggling involving air freight, and seized about 146 kilograms of suspected gold with an estimated market value of about $84 million, at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo shows the suspected smuggled gold which was moulded and camouflaged as air compressor parts. CUSTOMS AND EXCISE DEPARTMENT HONG KONG

Smugglers melted and spray painted $10 million in gold to look like machine parts

The suspicious plane cargo was flagged by the Hong Kong authorities.

www.popsci.com

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[arakboss]

Why do they have to resort to smuggling to send Gold out of the country? Maybe HK wanted the gold to stay in country so they could confiscate it one day.

 

[P7M13]

Why do they have to resort to smuggling to send Gold out of the country? Maybe HK wanted the gold to stay in country so they could confiscate it one day.

Perhaps because HK is now part of China.

 

[Stomper]

Why do they have to resort to smuggling to send Gold out of the country? Maybe HK wanted the gold to stay in country so they could confiscate it one day.

Perhaps because HK is now part of China.

DONALD TRUMP, DON'T TRUST CHINA….

 

[TTSX]

That's pretty clever. Would have been even moreso if they shipped mostly real parts with a couple gold ones mixed in. For $84M you could eat a lot of extra freight charges

 

[WillametteWill]

I just wonder if someone at customs said, "Look at these seven solid gold, painted gears...I mean six, yea, six."

 

[Flopsweat]

That's pretty clever. Would have been even moreso if they shipped mostly real parts with a couple gold ones mixed in. For $84M you could eat a lot of extra freight charges

This is what I was thinking. Why ship it all at once? It seems to me that smaller shipments would be easier to get away with, but you'd need multiple points of origin. On the other hand, I'm not well read on smuggling techniques.

 

[P7M13]

That's an indication that their X-Ray scanners have sensors and software that will do X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It's useful for detecting nuclear material.
The signature for gold is significantly higher than copper, aluminum or iron. Had they sent it as raw Tungsten for tooling, customs might have overlooked it.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Somebody snitched.

 

[trekkerpaul]

Pretty sure China bans gold exports. Somebody is going to be in some trouble for trying this.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

China does not want any of its wealth leaving the country.

 

[Flopsweat]

Pretty sure China bans gold exports. Somebody is going to be in some trouble for trying this.

One way or another, the CCP is going to execute someone.

 

[jbett98]

Brazil stopped gold smuggling in it's tracks by paying more then the going international gold rate.

Very smart when you consider that they just print more Brazilian Real currency.

 

[Mark W.]

That's an indication that their X-Ray scanners have sensors and software that will do X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy. It's useful for detecting nuclear material.
The signature for gold is significantly higher than copper, aluminum or iron. Had they sent it as raw Tungsten for tooling, customs might have overlooked it.

Or a simple magnet

 

[Nosferatu]

Great, now I'm going to have to find a new way to get my crackers & cheese on the plane.

 

[salmon creek gary]

The article didn't make it clear if customs at Hong Kong were doing anything more than a routine examination of outgoing air freight, but the article did report that the customs officials' WTF discovery had apparently exposed
" . . . an attempt to evade Japan's precious metals tariff that would have cost smugglers around $1.07 million".