Kathmandu: Alert security personnel in Kathmandu airport pounced on a Chinese man who they noticed was walking suspiciously. The man was arrested for concealing one kg gold in his rectum.

Security personnel at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) arrested Chinese national Sa Luitui, 22, last week after an X-ray machine detected the metal in his body during security screening at a walk through gate of the arrival point. He had landed on a Tibet Air flight from China.

Police suspected that something was wrong with the man after he was spotted behaving suspiciously and walking in a peculiar way, the Himalayan Times reported.

When quizzed, the Chinese admitted to concealing gold in his rectum.

Police, with the help of doctors at the Sinamangal-based KMC Hospital, removed the contraband which he had placed inside a condom with its part outside so that he could pull it out easily after reaching his destination.

The airport has reported three such cases of gold smuggling earlier.

Last week, two other Chinese nationals were arrested with eight kilograms of undeclared gold being smuggled via the airport.

Police said smugglers were changing their modus operandi for smuggling gold through Tribhuvan International Airport.

Concealing gold in the rectum, battery box, laptop, baggage, air-filter of vehicle, cargo trucks and inner sole of shoes are some ways adopted by smugglers.

Smugglers also mould gold into jewellery and wear them to outsmart security officials.

Similarly, racketeers have been using returnee Nepali migrant workers to smuggle gold. 

According to statistics released by Nepal Police, it seized 108 kg of gold in fiscal 2018-19 compared to 72 kg in the previous fiscal.

Officials said they had not been able to completely control gold smuggling for want of hi-tech screening devices and detectors along the borders and TIA, the daily said.

Most of the smuggled gold enters Nepal through TIA and Tatopani and Rasuwagadi-Kerung border points from Tibet, China.