Smuggler Turned Boeing 777 Lavatory Into a ‘Pot’ of Gold

12kg of gold was found behind the mirror in the lavatory of a Biman Bangladesh flight from Dubai on arrival in Dhaka on Monday. You might even say that lavatory was a pot of gold.

Smuggling gold into Bangladesh is incredibly common. Spot prices are high and it’s a common destination for illicit funds being taken out of the Gulf region and also parts of Asia as we learned when a North Korean diplomat was discovered trying to bring $1.4 million in gold into Dhaka.

I never realized that Boeing 777s had that much space behind the mirrors.

The Biman flight BG 128 landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Abu Dhabi via Chattogram around 9:20am.

Acting on the information from NSI, a team of customs raided the aircraft at 10:20am and recovered the 106 pieces of gold bars hidden behind the mirror in the toilet, said Othello Chowdhury, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Customs House.


Credit: National Security Intelligence, Bangladesh

Lavatories are a common hiding place for smugglers who do not want to use their own body cavities. In this case it was wise, better to have the gold found in the lavatory, it’s harder to explain on your person. Officials do not have any suspects.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. @Retired Lawyer. Story says 106 bars of gold were found behind the mirror. Are you counting the bars in the unrelated picture used to illustrate the story?

    Of course, 106 x 100g, is only 10.6kg, instead of the 12kg mentioned. But you also don’t say where you got the 100g number. I just read that 117g bars are common. So 106*117, is around 12.4kg. Aligning nicely with the statements in the story.

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