A Taiwanese passenger attempted to smuggle nearly 2 kilograms of gold, valued at over USD 215,000, hidden inside camera lenses at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

On the afternoon of June 25, authorities at Noi Bai International Airport uncovered a sophisticated gold smuggling attempt.

According to the Customs Department, at around 10 a.m., customs officers stationed at security checkpoint A1 detected suspicious signs during luggage screening for passenger C.P.H., who had arrived on Vietnam Airlines flight VN579 from Taiwan to Hanoi.

Officials noticed irregularities in four camera lenses.

Immediately, customs officials coordinated with Anti-Smuggling Control Team No. 1 (under the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Sub-Department of the Customs Department) and Noi Bai Airport Police to conduct a thorough examination of the luggage.

They discovered 12 yellow metal bars, suspected to be pure gold, concealed inside the camera lenses. The total weight was nearly 2 kilograms. The gold had been meticulously shaped and hidden to evade both x-ray scanners and manual inspections.

The estimated value of the gold was over VND 5.5 billion, equivalent to more than USD 215,000. Authorities consider this one of the most sophisticated gold smuggling attempts of the year.

All confiscated items and the suspect were handed over to the Economic Police Division (PC03) of the Hanoi Police Department for further investigation and legal processing.

In response to increasingly complex smuggling and trade fraud activities involving tactics such as brand counterfeiting, origin fraud, and misuse of export-import and transit procedures to evade taxes, customs authorities are ramping up professional measures and tightening inspections of goods and luggage at international border gates.