The work of the customs officer is full of surprises - sometimes they try to smuggle completely extraordinary things across the border. We will tell about them in today's ten.
Of course, illegal smuggling, weapons or drugs are more often detected at the border, but eyeballs, dried insects or skulls are found, for example. Introducing Top 10 most unusual finds of customs officers.
10. Dried Caterpillars
Tens of thousands of dried insects were packed in plastic bags and burlap at Gatwick UK. The 22-year-old passenger of the flight from the West African country of Burkina Faso tried to import caterpillars to Britain.
9. Greek statues
Several statues dated to the 6th century BC were removed at Greek customs from tourist luggage. Presumably, the statues were stolen from an excavation near Corinth.
8. Cakes stuffed with money
At the German customs in 2012, a load of sandwiches with filling was seized. A tightly folded bill of considerable nominal value was inserted inside each tube of cream.
7. Skeleton
At the Munich airport, two Italians were detained, in whose suitcase an X-ray scan revealed the presence of a human skeleton. Women explained that the skeleton belongs to a family member who died in Brazil but dreamed of being buried in Italy. Accompanying documents were presented for the unusual cargo.
6. Egyptian sarcophagus
At the Miami Airport, a passenger was detained carrying an Egyptian sarcophagus 3,000 years old in baggage. It turned out that Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiques, was returning a sarcophagus stolen a hundred years ago.
5. Reptiles
In 2009, a 24-year-old passenger was arrested at Sydney Airport, who was trying to take out four snakes and about a dozen living lizards from the country, packing animals in an ordinary suitcase.
4. Skulls
At the Greek customs, the luggage of two American tourists was detained, in which six human skulls were found. Tourists claimed that the skulls were bought in a souvenir shop, and buyers were sure that they were not real.
3. Eyeballs
In 2007, at the airport Stansted in the luggage of one of the passengers found 10 eyeballs that were floating in a jar of jam. Fortunately, the eyes turned out to be fake.
2. Bulbs with cocaine
An African prince was detained at London Heathrow Airport, in whose luggage they found hollowed onions stuffed with cocaine worth 163 thousand pounds. Such an unusual way of transporting in odorous bulbs was to confuse the dogs involved in the search for drugs.
1. Rare animals
In the baggage of a passenger from the UAE flying on a Bangkok-Dubai flight, Thai customs officers found four leopard cubs, a Malayan biruang cub, a white-tailed gibbon cub, a black-crested marmoset, two macaques and an Asian black bear cub.
