Lankan held with 1kg gold hidden in body

Customs officials found 904 grams of gold, worth about 4.5m Sri Lankan rupees ($29,370, £21,700) inside the suspect’s rectal cavity. The 45-year-old Sri Lankan man was bound for India but was stopped at Colombo’s international airport. 

There have been several similar cases in past years. Typically smugglers in the region buy gold in places like Dubai and Singapore, where it is relatively cheap, and then bring it to India to sell there at a profit. A customs officer told BBC Sinhala they spotted the man because “he was walking suspiciously”.

Metal detectors then identified the hidden luggage, “carefully packed in polythene bags and neatly inserted”, according to a custom officer. “Among that there were four yellow gold biscuits, three pieces of yellow gold, six yellow gold jewellery articles and two silver plated yellow gold jewellery articles,” a customs spokesman said.