Hanoi police seek charges against Japanese men for gold smuggling

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Hanoi police have proposed that the prosecutor’s office press charges against two Japanese citizens for attempting to smuggle $260,000 worth of gold earlier this year.

Kitada Takayoshi, 33, was caught on August 3 at Noi Bai International Airport while allegedly trying to bring seven gold statuettes out of Vietnam on a flight to Tokyo.

Customs officers detected metal objects in his carry-on luggage and found the statuettes, weighing seven kilograms (15 lbs) in total.

The passenger later confessed that the gold statuettes were worth approximately 31 million yen ($260,000).

Hanoi police then arrested 35-year-old Iwamura Masakazu, who was accused of assisting in the gold smuggling attempt. The second man flew to Vietnam soon after the case was busted.

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