Posted on 04/19/2024 12:17:07 PM PDT by Red Badger
The suspected smuggled gold was molded and camouflaged as air compressor parts. Customs and Excise Department Hong Kong
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* Hong Kong customs officials discovered 146 kilograms of suspected gold on board a freight plane headed for Japan.
* They say it is the largest gold-smuggling case on record in terms of value.
* A 31-year-old man was arrested in connection with the case.
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Hong Kong customs officials have seized 146 kilograms of suspected gold, worth more than $10 million, on board a freight plane headed for Japan.
The discovery is the largest gold-smuggling case on record in Hong Kong in terms of seizure value, according to the Customs Department.
The precious metal was discovered on 27 March while officials at Hong Kong International Airport examined two air compressors scheduled to be shipped by air freight to Japan.
Air compressors have various industrial and mining uses and are commonly used to fill gas cylinders used in diving. They are typically made of cast iron or aluminum.
But during an x-ray of the air compressors, officials discovered that gold had been carefully molded and "concealed in the integral parts" of the machinery.
The gold parts had been painted silver to match the machine parts, officials told local news outlet, the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Acting Senior Superintendent Jason Lau Yuk-lung said it was the first time the department had discovered smugglers using this method of hiding gold, according to SCMP.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
So the Chi-coms can detect smuggled gold but not fentanyl?
Do not do this at home...................
Sounds like a 3 Stooges episode
PAging Mr. Auric Goldfinger. PAging Mr. Goldfinger. Please pick up the courtesy phone at the reservation desk Mr. Goldfinger
Love Fogelberg. Died way too young.................
Ya , it worked in the movies . The climate cult also live in the movies ,LOL
Clever. But bad practices. They didn’t take in to account shrink.
Goldfinger moved his gold by making his car’s body panels from it. Similar concept here.
There was also that movie “The Lavender Hill Mob,” where stoldn gold was melted and cast into Eiffel Tower souvenirs.
I had this basic idea many years ago, but never got in the situation that I put it to use.
I’m really surprised that Customs (even Chinese Customs) discovered it, Maybe they noticed the weight, but more likely, I’d bet, someone informed on them.
They should have installed them in the full machine having gone to the trouble of duplicating actual machine parts, rather than as loose parts, as I guess they were.
Of course that wouldn’t get around informants or surveillance.
AH! that must be where I got my idea. I had seen both of those movies in my childhood. but didn’t remember those plot devices.
Best line n a Bond movie:
Bond:
“Do you expect me to talk?”
Goldfinger:
“No Mr Bond, I expect you to die”
They should have machined the gold for tighter tolerances and then electroplated the gold with chromium. I’m not sure if that’s possible to electroplate gold with chromium but it probably is.
The ingenuity of people evading capital controls in kleptocratic countries should not be underestimated. Ultimately, the government wants to make it easier to steal private property by keeping it in the country. Whereas individuals want to keep their assets safe from government seizure by getting them out of the country.
$10m is a trifle compared to the amounts funneled out through bitcoin and similar instruments. $50b was smuggled out through crypto in 2020.
Both Russian and Chinese evasion of capital controls are likely inflating crypto values. The issue with BRICS countries trying to replace the dollar is the fact that they are ruled by kleptocrats and their citizens are perennially involved in trying to take their cash out by moving it into dollars, euros of whatever’s handy, out of their home governments’ reach.
I read a long thread on this somewhere.
the consensus from people who claimed to know was that
gold is black to x-rays, and other metals are not so much.
they said stuff coming into the us is all x-rayed and because this was anomalous someone actually checked.
yes I know we do some screening and read after the fact about how much radiation I was exposed to when I drove my convertible over the border
I personally don’t believe that. I more inclined to think parallel construction.
because if it wasn’t the parts would have been “lost” somehow
LOL! If I had a criminal mind, I’d have been way ahead of these pikers. ;)
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