Japanese police arrested a total of five people, including four Koreans and one Japanese, on suspicion of smuggling gold bars worth approximately 14 billion yen from Hong Kong to Japan (violation of customs law), according to the Mainichi Shimbun on the 9th.
According to Osaka police, they were caught smuggling 160 gold bars (160 kg) worth about 1.5356 billion yen (approximately 14 billion won) from Hong Kong to Kansai Airport in Japan on January 11 last year.
This is the second-largest amount of smuggled gold bars seized at Japanese airports and ports, following 233 kg at Chubu Airport in 2017. They concealed the gold bars in air cargo carrying cosmetics.
Kansai Airport customs officials became suspicious of the cargo declared as cosmetics due to its heavy weight and, after investigation, discovered the hidden gold bars. They are also suspected of smuggling 161 kg of gold bars into Japan from November 2023 to January last year.
The arrested Koreans stated they "will not speak" regarding the smuggling charges.
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