Three women arrested for smuggling 20 pounds of gold down their bras at Hokkaido airport

Hardly the last place someone would look.

On 19 March police in Hokkaido announced the arrest of three women, registered as Taiwanese, for trying to smuggle 10.5 kilograms (23 pounds) of gold into Japan. Each woman is accused of having a bra-pad shaped disc of gold inserted in their bras while going through customs at Hakodate Airport on 11 November.

According to police and customs officials, two 47-year-old women and the 20-year-old daughter of one woman each had a pocket sewn into each cup their brassieres into which one 11-centimeter (4.3-inch), 1.75-kilogram (3.9-pound) solid gold bra pad was inserted.

ブラジャーに金塊を隠し密輸の疑い「日本に持っていけば報酬」: ざっくり言うと * 17年11月、台湾から函館空港に着いた女3人が関税法違反の疑いで逮捕された * 胸用の下着の中に約5000万円相当の金塊を隠して密輸しようとしたとい… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…

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女子美容＠ダイエット (@norio5940adisc2) March 19, 2018

The top-heavy Taiwanese trio were said to have been instructed to transport the gold in exchange for 72,000 yen (US$675) each. Police are currently looking into whether this is part of a larger smuggling ring or not.

Online reaction was in awe of both the women’s endurance and poor choice of hiding location.

“Wow… Can those things pass through metal detectors?*
“Those are some strong women.*
“Heavy and hard, poor gals. That’s a hard life.”
“I hope they don’t get punished too hard. It’s not like it’s guns or drugs or anything like that.”
“Let’s hide contraband in the one place that men are guaranteed to look at.”

As the last comment sarcastically suggested, the women’s scheme was spoiled when a customs officer happened to notice that their breasts seemed “unusually hard.” Further inspection revealed the precious metal valued at 50 million yen (US$469,000).

Perhaps a pair of butt pads would have been more discrete? They could have been pressed wider and therefore thinner than the bra pads. Nevertheless, their plan certainly was way more well thought out than the guy who just tried to stick it all up his butt and then tucked the leftover bit into his shoe.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun, Hachima Kiko
Top image: SoraNews24

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