smuggling isn’t an easy job just ask han solo it requires a higher iq than you might think you can’t just coast on charm and the smugglers we’re about to introduce you to are some of the cleverest of the bunch these are the smartest smugglers in all history number 15 cigarettes inside tree trunks a plus for effort russian smugglers were trying to think of a way to smuggle cigarettes manufactured in belarus to poland which would then be moved to germany and then the uk they decided one of the best methods would be to hollow out tree trunks and stuff packets inside what they probably didn’t anticipate was that the real trees would be a lot heavier than those stuffed with cigarettes customs officers at the yagadin checkpoint at the ukrainian polish border decided to carry out a random check and discovered that one of the trunks had been hollowed out [Applause] on closer inspection they noticed that heaps of them had been hollowed out they said it was almost impossible to tell the difference but the wait was a dead giveaway that something wasn’t quite right inside 27 tons of timber 55 tree trunks were tampered with and contained 25 000 packets of cigarettes the find was made on the ukrainian side of the border and guards used chainsaws to cut into the logs the cigarettes were tightly packed inside you gotta hand it to the smugglers they really put on their thinking caps for this job like this video smash the subscribe button and click the notification bell right now or this centipede will crawl on your face when you’re sleeping now it’s time for the odd topic on the left of this photo you can see a pigeon on the right you can see the pigeon cut open full of drugs these pigeons are fakes made by some incredibly clever smugglers nobody would think to check a bird to see if they were full of illegal pills making these fake birds the perfect way to smuggle drugs quite ingenious if you ask us comment down below with the hashtag odd topic and let us know your opinion in relation to what we just showed on screen with that said let’s keep things moving number 14 gold inside soap while we wouldn’t call these people the smartest smugglers in history they actually did a pretty good job of hiding gold they shouldn’t have had or should have at least declared but you just can’t beat airport officials who are always on the lookout for people trying to smuggle things into or out of a country at a mangalore international airport customs officials seize gold granules worth around 325 that a passenger had concealed inside a bottle of chocolate syrup and four soap bars he had arrived at the airport early in the morning on an air india express flight from dubai after the discovery he was arrested the same thing happened to another man but on a much larger scale customs officers discovered more than fifty thousand dollars worth of gold inside soap at the tirutaropoli international airport in tamil nadu the smugglers had gone to great effort to hollow out the soap carefully then formed gold pouches wrapped in black plastic to fill in the gaps they were then put back in their packaging so that no one would be any the wiser but they were wise and that man would have also been arrested for his smuggling efforts number 13 cash smuggling have you ever watched border wars on national geographic this show is proof that anyone can be a smuggler even a family in one episode they showed a family who looked every bit as innocent as you would expect a family to look but they weren’t innocent at all instead they were smuggling a massive amount of cartel cash a husband wife and three children pull up to the border crossing in a white suv they say they’ve been in the united states for around an hour and were shopping for school supplies their story seems to check out until the border workers noticed scratching on the trunk and tampering around the windshield wipers because the car is new and the scratches look out of place they decide to investigate further upon opening the hood they notice a panel at the back that appears to be a wall by bending it open they discovered 26 packages containing at least 400 000 the border workers said they would then tow the car away into the seizure lot for further checks and spend the next five or six hours counting the money number 12 drone smugglers caught on camera it goes without saying that prison isn’t going to be a fun time you don’t have the freedom to do anything you please so some criminals get creative with how they attempt to smuggle contraband into the prison’s four walls corrections officers expect this though so they are always on guard in 2017 the ministry of justice released footage showing a gang using a drone to deliver contraband items to the tune of between six hundred thousand and one million pounds into the prison craig hickenbottom the ringleader organized everything from behind bars as a result of his actions he was given an extra seven years and two months in prison the footage shows two people climbing a fence with a yellow bag and a drone they then proceed to strap the cargo with fishing line to the drone they flew it from a nearby field over a hedge and into the prison grounds they were caught on camera several times taking in items like weapons drugs phones and even a freeview box so the prisoners could catch up on their favorite shows cameras inside the prison showed a ringleader with an improvised hook with it he caught the line attached to the drone to bring in the goodies according to the officer that caught them the ringleader had organized at least 50 flights number 11 snakes taped to smugglers body it’s not just cash drugs and gold that gets smuggled from one place to another it can also be animals a 22 year old norwegian man had been pulled aside for a spot check and customs officers noticed a tarantula casually cruising around one of his bags that was a red flag for the customs officers who pulled the man aside to carry out a more thorough check they may have expected a few more spiders but they discovered a whole lot more than that instead the man had 14 non-venomous royal pythons rolled up in socks and taped around his torso but that wasn’t all each of his legs had small tins strapped to them each containing a single albino leopard gecko before being able to leave the town of christian sand after arriving from denmark by ferry the man was arrested unfortunately animal smuggling is all too common particularly in norway there are many prohibited species of animals so people attempt to bring them in from other countries in some unique ways we can’t imagine this guy got off too lightly number 10 man in life suitcase jail sentences can be tough on families while you’re outside living your life your loved one is locked up with very few things to keep them entertained or happy but if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do it’s try and smuggle them out after all they do the crime they do the time maria delmar orhono was a pregnant 19 year old woman whose husband was serving a 20-year jail sentence for various crimes at a chatu mal prison on a conjugal visit she took a large suitcase with her which initially didn’t raise any suspicions after all she was staying with him so she needed clothes right but as she went to leave guards noticed that she was struggling with her suitcase a bit it seemed heavier and more awkward on its wheels the guards also noted that maria seemed a little nervous if you were just carrying your clothing that probably wouldn’t be the case before she could leave the main doors she was stopped inside her bag was her husband who was just wearing his socks and underpants he was promptly sent back to his cell and we’re gonna take a guess here and say those conjugal visits were no longer allowed number nine man inside car seat border officers have to be at their very best at any time of the day or night if they aren’t they may just miss some of the crazy ways that people try and smuggle goods and people over the border in march an 18 year old u.s citizen was stopped at the calexico west port entry at around 1am in a black mitsubishi something must have seemed off to officers because they sent the driver into her vehicle for further inspection on the surface nothing seemed a mess she was crossing the border and was the sole occupant in the car but once the border officers got the canine team involved they quickly realized that wasn’t the case at all the dogs were particularly interested in the rear seat underneath the seat cushions in a compartment that they described as non-factory was a 48-year-old mexican national he was taken into custody at the imperial county jail and the woman was awaiting criminal proceedings according to the cbp director of field operations for san diego pete flores their national security mission was to protect the american homeland from threats he said this was an example of inhumane tactics used to circumvent our laws number eight drugs in car seat drugs continue to be a massive problem around the world so border patrols do their best to stop them from being smuggled from one country into another it’s their eye for detail that led them to uncover around two hundred thousand dollars worth of drugs hidden inside a car seat in 2017 border officers had stopped a vehicle at around 9 00 am at the el centro border while they were inspecting it the k9 unit alerted officers that something was a mess the driver aged 42 was requested to undergo a secondary inspection that was when they managed to find five sealed packages of drugs in the vehicle’s rear passenger seats i think i wanna bet it’s gonna be cocaine in total there were around 12.5 pounds of drugs with a street value of close to two hundred thousand dollars the driver of the vehicle was a mexican citizen and they were turned over to the drug enforcement administration along with the narcotics and vehicle prior to that discovery border officers at the el centro sector border had seized hundreds of pounds of drugs in a single year no matter how well these smart smugglers think they have hidden things border officers almost always find them number seven phones strapped to a body a lot of things are banned in china like violent video games fireworks and some books like green eggs and ham by dr seuss but do you know what else is banned the act of smuggling phones phones and electronics tend to be far more expensive in mainland china than in regions nearby like hong kong so to save a few bucks some people hire people to smuggle electronics in from outside of mainland china or they do it themselves they can then avoid paying import tax and sell them for a profit but sometimes people who do that get caught in 2015 a man was arrested at china’s border with a whopping 94 iphone strapped to his body he had used plastic bags and tape to strap six and six plus apple iphones to his torso calves thighs and crotch apparently officials had noticed he was walking funny and stopped him they then seized the phones and held the man in custody you’d be walking funny too if you had nearly a hundred phones attached to your body sometimes it’s hard enough trying to carry around one number six live hummingbirds in trousers if you’ve ever sat next to a nervous flyer you would notice they tend to fidget sweat and keep an eye on the closest exit but if you happen to see a dutch traveler moving around in his seat back in 2011 then that wasn’t why he was fidgeting he had live hummingbirds in his pants yeah that’s right birds in his pants authorities noticed that the man was acting suspiciously you would be too if you were carrying more than just your luggage french customs officers then detained him at the roshambu airport in cayenne french guinea when they held the man aside they found over a dozen live hummingbirds wrapped up in pouches that he had sewn into the front of his pants the little parcels were secured in place with cloth tape to stop the birds from flinting about while in his pants but we can only imagine that those beaks could have done a number on his legs they didn’t appear to have been sedated during the flight but the birds seemed to be alive apparently this wasn’t their first rodeo either he had been convicted before for smuggling hummingbirds it’s unknown whether he was sentenced this time around but we can only imagine that would have been the likely outcome number five truckload of ammo in the southernmost city of texas brownsville stolen cars are often used for smuggling contraband so there’s a special investigations unit set up for car thefts and narcotics to investigate reports of vehicles being used in smuggling activities our unit special investigations unit consists of primarily auto theft and narcotics in one particular case officers inspect a suspicious pickup truck in a lot that they suspect will be exported to mexico at first glance it looks like an ordinary pickup truck but something is hiding within it that they possibly weren’t expecting the canine unit alerts them to something around the truck bed area they notice that the tailgate is welded shut and the bed liner has been altered the base of the liner isn’t flat and there are loose and new looking bolts keeping it in place once they remove the liner they find thousands of loose ammunition as well as magazines and a few guns the truck bed is about three inches deep with loose ammo the officers definitely have their work cut out for them as they have to count each piece of ammo and separate it into the various sizes while it is a massive hull they say it’s a mere fraction of what people attempt to smuggle into and out of the us number four man dresses as car seat while not smuggling per se this is a hilarious attempt at hiding a person so a vehicle can look like it’s driving itself a man dresses as a car seat and other drivers and pedestrians are confused about whether the van’s driving itself the goal of this experiment is to gather research for autonomous vehicles the man behind the wheel wants to get an idea of how people respond to driverless vehicles what immediately became apparent is that when the vehicle stops at pedestrian crossings some give the vehicle a wave to thank it for stopping they don’t notice that there isn’t anyone in it the ford has two white lights at the front that mean different things when it’s moving side to side that means the car will stop if it starts blinking it means it’s going to start up again autonomous vehicle manufacturers want to create an international language that shows people what a car is planning on doing so they can plan their next moves accordingly researchers who traveled around in these self-driving vehicles collected about 150 hours and 1 800 miles of data to review at a later date number three smugglers leave jeep on border fence illegal border crossings are nothing unusual but what is unusual is this method for trying to cross a border using a vehicle and ramps in 2012 suspected smugglers had set up ramps at the u.s mexico border in the southeast corner of california by the imperial sand dunes they then attempted to drive an suv over the 14-foot border fence using those ramps as you can imagine it didn’t go to plan they got the jeep stuck at the very top of the barrier agents at the border spotted the vehicle and noticed two smugglers trying to free it when they approached they abandoned the car and ran into mexico to escape being caught the border officials said the jeep was empty but it was likely filled with contraband before it got stuck on the fence believe it or not this isn’t the first time people have tried to drive over the border wall it had been successfully pulled off the year before but the vehicle’s occupants were immediately captured given the lack of vegetation around this part of the border it’s not exactly easy to camouflage a massive vehicle climbing the border wall you’re just bound to get caught so we wouldn’t call these smugglers very smart number two drugs in fake belly smugglers are getting smarter and smarter we hate to think just how many contraband items have been missed due to how many unique methods they have for hiding them however just as smugglers are getting smarter so too are airport workers and border officers in september 2020 a pregnant canadian citizen was lining up for a routine pat-down as she attempted to leave colombia but as it turns out she wasn’t pregnant at all the customs officer noticed how her belly felt cold and hard which is now what you would expect with skin and warm blood it wasn’t a baby in there it was four pounds of drugs amazingly the stomach looked real when she lifted her shirt it was a skin-colored stomach with a belly button and stretch lines where you would expect to see them on a real pregnant mother-to-be even viewing her side on with her shirt up in the video footage she still looks like a pregnant woman not a drug smuggler have they got it wrong not at all the baby belly was silicone and it was strapped to her body with packages of drugs hidden inside number one drugs in implants it’s amazing the lengths that smugglers will go to for a payday even going so far as to have surgical procedures to hide the drugs inside their body airport security always go the extra mile with passengers arriving from pagoda colombia this destination is known for its drug trafficking so many smugglers go to extreme lengths to bring drugs back with them one woman probably went a little further than most by smuggling drugs inside her implants after an airport security check in spain the woman’s story wasn’t adding up she was offering vague answers so they knew they had to find out more they immediately thought she might be carrying drugs in her luggage or on her body they were wrong she was carrying them in her body after being patted down by a female officer they discovered bandages with blood on them underneath her these were covering incisions the woman said she had new implants and they must not have healed properly police weren’t convinced and she was taken to a hospital where a medical team removed bags from each which contained three pounds of drugs worth around 35 000 a pound these smugglers clearly have a lot of smarts which makes you wonder why they didn’t use them for good like a lawyer doctor or stockbroker which instance of smuggling surprised you the most we are amazed that these people even got caught also check out our other cool stuff showing up on screen right now see you next time
15 Smartest Smugglers in All History
