Japanese caught with suspected gold statuettes boarding aircraft

HÀ NỘI – A Japanese citizen was last night caught with seven statuettes supposedly made of gold while boarding a plane without a customs declaration at the Nội Bài International Airport.

At about 11pm yesterday, the customs officers detected some objects made of metal in cabin luggage while running it through the airport scanner.

The luggage belonged to a yet unidentified Japanese man, who was to fly on the Japan Airlines flight JL752 bound for Tokyo’s Narita airport last night.

Seven statues were found among his the hand luggage, weighing totally 5kg.

The man said the statuettes were made of gold, and worth approximately JPY16.5 million (US$162,700).

The airport customs this morning has sent the seized items for testing to ascertain the material.

The investigation is on. – VNS