Top 10 things in the world that have been smuggled the most

New Delhi: Smugglers transfer goods and people illegally from one country to another. The goods may vary from gold and silver, to drugs and weapons.The practice of smuggling started in the middle ages and continues till this day.Here are ten things in the world that are smuggled the most: 1. Humans Human smuggling is when a person by his own will wants to migrate from one country to another but does not have the legal right to do it, so he/she makes a decision to smuggle oneself.Such people get helped by smugglers who get paid.This smuggling is different from human trafficking as it involves the consent of the person.Many die will getting smuggled due to suffocation in the suitcase, or they get lost on their way/A few years back, in 2001 a 135lb woman was found in the dashboard of a car near the US-Mexico border. 2. Weapons Smuggling of arms and weapons is the root cause of terrorism in the world.Every year thousands of heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, portable anti-tanks guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems are smuggled from one country to another.Internationally, it is a market of $60billion approximately per year.The infamous Purulia arms drop case during the Nineties in India was one in the series of arms running rackets flourishing in South and Southeast Asia. 3. Drugs There are many ways in which traders in narcotics indulging in drug smuggling.People have been found carrying drugs in their intestines, latex pouches covered in industrial sealants and aluminum foil inside their bodies.Last year Afghanistan secured the world number one position as the producer and supplier of illegal opium, Canada is the leading supplier of ecstasy pills to North America. 4. Exotic animals and birds Many bizarre stories are heard about the smuggling of animals and birds.In 2005, customs officials in Melbourne, Australia, stopped a woman who had arrived from Singapore after hearing mysterious "flipping" noises coming from around her waist.They found an apron under her skirt designed with pockets holding 15 plastic bags filled with water and 51 tropical fish.There are several other instances of people getting caught trying to smuggle birds strapped to their legs, fishes in pouches made in aprons inside a long skirt, baby leopards, pythons, tiger cubs, frogs, monkeys in suit cases or just shipping the animals (like lizards, butterflies) in hollowed out books and cases.The net market value of animal smuggling is approximately $20billion. 5. Minerals Smuggling of minerals like chromite, coal, gold and iron and precious stones like lapis lazuli and emeralds in Afghanistan constitutes 20-25% of its foreign trade.People get good money by selling black stones covered in coltan ore in Venezuela to brokers.This coltan ore is used in micro chips in smartphones, used as a powder in solar panels it increases efficiency.But mining coltan ore in Venezuela, yes you guessed it, is illegal.Even women and children take part in this mining process.The drug smugglers mix this with other legitimate minerals and sell it to high tech manufacturers.These people who mine the conflict minerals are poor and have no safety or job security; they simply do it for the good money they get. 6. Currencies People are not legally allowed to carry currencies illegally, hence they get detained at airports. In June 2013, a woman and her sixteen year old daughter were caught on the Windsor- Detroit tunnel in America.They had $59,000 sewn in pouches inside the linings of their bras. 7. Cellphones Smuggling cellphones into prisons might sound weird but that happened in June 2013 a cat was caught trying to smuggle in mobile phones and chargers in a Russian prison.Justice has been served though, the cat was detained.There are about 50,000 people living near the border, who cross the border between North Korea and China to trade and almost all of them have mobile phones, made in China of course and smuggled in.In most of the Indian jails, there have been frequent incidents of smuggling of cellphones behind bars. 8. Cigarettes China is the biggest supplier of counterfeit cigarettes.This may make you chuckle thinking of how everything is “made in China”; well it is not that far behind when it comes to counterfeit things.This results in cheaper prices, no tax incomes for the government and poor and vulnerable people being the targets.The quality of such counterfeit cigarettes is dodgy at best and giving competition to China in this department is Paraguay and Eastern Europe.Cigarettes are the most smuggled in products in Canada.9. DVDs Video piracy is a huge market all over the world thus creating a big problem for the creative industry.In India, markets like Palika Bazaar, Karol Bagh sell pirated DVD s and CDs. China is also the biggest producer of smuggled DVDs. 10. Food Expensive food items are often smuggled intensively.In North Korea there is a black market where they sell Choco Pies for three or four times their original price, as in those round chocolate snacks filled with marshmallows in the centre that come in red plastic wrappers.

Top 10 things in the world that have been smuggled the most

New Delhi: Smugglers transfer goods and people illegally from one country to another. The goods may vary from gold and silver, to drugs and weapons.The practice of smuggling started in the middle ages and continues

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