Fancy pants: man busted at mainland China border with diamonds hidden in his underpants
A man attempted to smuggle diamonds into mainland China via Shenzhen’s Luowu border checkpoint by hiding the stones in his underpants, a newspaper reports.
Citing Shenzhen custom authorities based in Luowu, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported that a man caught the suspicion of custom officers for carrying a man’s handbag with only light luggage containing a carton of cigarettes and a tin of milk powder.
He was intercepted and began behaving strangely. On further inspection, customs officials discovered a tiny ziplock plastic bag in the man’s underpants.
Within the bag, officials found 14 diamonds that came to a total weight of 7.38 carats.
The suspect confessed to attempted smuggling of the diamonds. It was a repeat offence as he was also busted just last month for carrying an excess of foreign currency when crossing to the mainland.
It is likely the suspect will face criminal charges.
In the first half of this year, 71 instances of diamond smuggling have been intercepted by customs in Luowu, representing a 1.7 times increase from the same period last year. A total of 663.65 carats of diamonds were discovered in those cases, which is six times the weight of the smuggled diamonds discovered in the same period last year.
