Fun on Friday: Busted!

Did you hear about the Venezuelan nationals who got busted trying to smuggle $5 million worth of gold bars into the US through a Fort Lauderdale airport?

True story.

The duo had 230 pounds of gold stuffed into the nose of a private Cessna jet. Customs officials discovered a hidden compartment when they noticed some loose rivets on the nose and decided to take a closer look.

See — this is why I don’t commit crimes — well, besides the ethical and moral implications. I would almost certainly get caught like these guys.

I was always the kid who got caught. I mean, I’ll be honest, I was a pretty goody-goody kid. But whenever I did try to pull a fast one, I got busted.

Here’s an example. When I was a junior in high school, I faked a midterm grade. This was back in the day when teachers gave out paper midterm reports. On midterm day, you got one slip from each teacher. I was flunking Chemistry due to my failure to turn in several assignments. So, I managed to get my hands on a blank midterm report slip and I gave myself a C. Good plan, right? I had six weeks to make up the work and get my grade up. Nobody would be the wiser. It was a masterful forgery too. I did a perfect facsimile of the teacher’s signature.

And I got caught.

My mom called the school to find out why I was getting a C. When she found out that I was not, in fact, getting a C, I was failing, well, let’s just say it didn’t play out well for me.

That one was just bad luck. Really bad luck. Who’s mom calls the school for a C on a midterm? Mine apparently. But most of the time, I got caught because of my lack of attention to detail. You know; like not tightening the rivets on the nose of your airplane when you install the secret compartment to smuggle gold.

Anyway, customs officials found the 230 pounds of gold stash in the nose and arrested John Carlos Sanchez Rojas, 42, and Victor Fossi Grieco, 51. According to the report in the Sun Sentinal, the duo failed to declare the gold on their customs forms.

Sometimes little details like this in a news story amused me. Like anybody would expect gold hidden in a secret compartment in the nose of a plane to be declared on a customs form. This kind of goes without saying, right? But our intrepid reporter is nothing if not thorough.

At any rate, according to the Sun Sentinal, Grieco admitted he put the gold in the nose of the plane. And Rojas told investigators he obtained the yellow metal from various sources throughout Venezuela. He reportedly said he was transporting the gold, and was going to sell it and collect a fee for his efforts.

Now he’s in jail. Because he got busted.

So, I reiterate, this is why it’s not a good idea to smuggle gold or otherwise commit crimes. The payoff might seem lucrative, but the downside is pretty steep.

There is a better, much safer way to get gold. Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and talk to a SchiffGold precious metals specialist. They can hook you up and you don’t have to worry about making sure the rivets on the nose of your airplane are tight.

Fun on Friday is a weekly SchiffGold feature. We dig up some of the off-the-wall and off-beat stories relating to precious metals and the economy, and share them with you – with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Click here to read other posts in this series.