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© KYODO7 women caught smuggling gold from S Korea concealed in their bodies
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Disillusioned
Wow! Real gold nuggets!
oldman_13
Smelly situation
koiwaicoffee
Excuse my ignorance on the topic but gold is not illegal. Why do they smuggle it? The only reason I can guess is that the market price is set according to the economy of each country, so they bring gold to sell it here for a profit.
But why is it regulated? Who regulates it? Who benefits from the regulation? Are a few questions that arise, and a discerning journalist would answer..
Aly Rustom
And the officials had to extract gold from..I feel sorry for these officials
Kobe White Bar Owner
@ disil....
you beat me to it! ;o)
serendipitous1
And they get the gold returned to them. There's some omotenashi for you! Hope it's washed a bit first.
Disillusioned
They smuggle it to avoid import tax and resell it for a handsome profit.
Camman80
the seven women in their 50s to 60s arrived from Incheon.
Mmmm, gold extraction.
dcog9065
Hmm, does the price of gold really vary by country? Is that how the gold market works..?
Gobshite
The immigration inspector's name is Goldfinger? :-)
Bintaro
I guess they are real gold diggers !
qazwsx
Yeah Japan imposes 8% tax on gold. They bring it in avoiding the tax, then resell it and make the 8% profit because the tax gets paid by the buyer. Also the current penalty is just a fine, the gold is always returned to the person who was caught, so not a big disincentive
jiji Xx
nobody thought about metal-detectors?
OssanAmerica
Did you read the article?
" the seven women in their 50s to 60s arrived from Incheon Airport in South Korea, passing themselves off as tourists participating in a tour before being caught by metal detectors at the Japanese airport."
Kokuzi
I've heard of 'Buns of Steel', but 'Bums of Gold' is a new one...
goldorak
A gold butt plug would have been less suspicious; who in their right mind would suspect 7 women in their 50s/60s - all with a gold butt plug inserted into their rectum- of trying to smuggle gold into japan!?
smithinjapan
Golden buttholes. Nice try.
fxgai
How about just cancelling "consumption" tax on sales of gold. The government is planning to add all sorts of consumption tax loopholes for "essential" items so why not?
fxgai
koiwaicoffee,
Japan imposes "consumption" tax on the sale of it. The buyer payers, and the seller receives.
If you bought it outside of the country where you don't have to pay the tax, you can bag the consumption tax when you sell it on in Japan.
Consumption tax revenues presumably, but given the amount of resources spent on policing this these days I don't think it makes sense.
DaDude
He/she was asking why these ladies didn't think about the metal detectors in the first place. Everyone knows the aftermath.
nandakandamanda
The questions should be how did they get through the metal detectors going out of Icheon, and why did they go through metal detectors coming into Kansai when no-one else does, unless metal detectors have suddenly been introduced for incoming passengers there?
As to the smuggling of gold from Hong Kong through South Korea to Japan to collect the tax difference, this has featured in the news here on and off over the last couple of years. If a group brings in 100 million yen's worth of gold, the profit will be 8 million, ie 75,000 USD per trip. With a little 'cooperation' the same gold can then be smuggled out the back of the shop and flown back to Hong Kong for another round trip, an automatic money generator.
kurisupisu
Up to a kilo can be imported without any tax which begs the question; just how much did they have up there?
SaikoPhysco
If you think about it... if you can get away with it, it is a pretty good business. Gold costs about Y140,000 per troy ounce. If you were able to smuggle in 20 troy ounces of gold.... and sell them at a premium of 5%...the customer would still save 3% in consumption tax plus whatever markup they charge in Japan itself. The profit on 20 ounces at 5% premium works out to around Y140,000., which would easily cover round trip airfare and more. I just wonder who is buying all the smuggled gold... that is who Japanese authorities need to focus on.
jiji Xx
@Ossan.... exactly..... any airport I've ever passed through for the last umpteen decades has had metal-detectors... did they not know of the existence of same?
@DaDude... thank you...
wanderlust
Arriving passengers screened with a metal detector? Seems to be a new initiative. Or were they deemed suspicious? It was at Chubu (Nagoya), not Kansai airport; maybe there is a different protocol in place there for anal-ysing arriving passengers?
Jalapeno
Flashback to Pulp Fiction and the Christopher Walken scene.
nandakandamanda
SaikoPsycho, the gold is carried into legal gold dealers' shops, in Tokyo or Fukuoka for example. Not too long ago one of these 'carriers' was robbed of the gold just before entering one store, so there must be regular known traffic, and even grey-on-grey crime.
nandakandamanda
(Or maybe robbed of the cash generated...)
Silvafan
the rectum aka "prison wallet"
Why didn't the women choose the other cavity? Did they believe the inspectors were less likely to look in there?
wtfjapan
modern day version of the "Goose that laid the golden egg"
Haruka
I have never gone through a metal detector coming into the country, only going out.
Why were they not caught leaving with it, unless they placed it up the shoot when they were on the plane.
goldorak
Excellent question ;)!
After much brain-racking, am down to 2 options: a/they all suffer from vaginal prolapse (couldn't afford to take any chances could they), b/ they KNEW that their anal sphincters whose day-to-day biz consists in retaining 'anything' (usually fecal matter though) in the rectum, would do the job.
So it's all about expertise & reliability really, that's why good ol' rectum has become the go-to cavity (so to speak) for would-be smugglers. Damn I love science!
Myhumbletake
Expensive buttholes while it lasted.
jiji Xx
they had plans to smuggle gold but the metal-detector wrecked 'em?
m(_ _;;m 申し訳ない
Jonathan Prin
If you imagine you carry several bags, you could smuggle a lot and benefit to pay for extra cost.
I believe metal detectors were at a location where tourists are more "processed" when suspicuon arises
Aren't buttholes of men larger ;) ?
Maybe authorities were too shy to check the other hole lol.
Why not just use gold jewelry by the way, with 1kg of gold representing very very little space...
John B
The Golden Girls reunion, huh?
lostrune2
Win the golds at the Olympics, SK, not at the airport lol
canadianbento
Why does Japan restrict Gold from being brought into this Country?
Wolfpack
Here again is another example of how excessive taxation incentivizes people to commit crime.
Being apprehended by the police in a crowded airport is humiliating enough - but once they were caught.... How come criminals don’t care about the consequences of their actions?
sir_bentley28
So that's what they mean by "dirty gold"!