Elderly Man Busted With $276,000 Taped to His Crotch
German customs officers stopped an elderly husband and wife for a routine road check and found €8,000—about $11,000— in the woman's clothes. Then they discovered her husband was carrying a lot more cash in a much less comfortable location.
A patdown revealed he had taped nearly €200,000 ($276,000) in cash, divided into four bundles, to his genitals. The European Union requires travelers carrying more than €10,000 across the border to declare it to customs or face a large fine.
The couple, from the central German state of Hesse, said no when asked if they were carrying more than the allowed amount.
They were stopped near Trier, close to the border between Germany and Luxembourg, which has an international reputation as a tax haven. Luxembourg only last year started sharing information on its famously secretive banking system with foreign tax authorities. As recently as last month, it vetoed EU attempts to close its tax loopholes.
In other groin-based smuggling news, U.S. Customs announced it busted a Trinidadian man trying to smuggle $70,000 worth of heroin through JFK Airport by hiding it in his crotchal region.
