Advertisement

Wackiest items that people try to get past border control

The wackiest items that people try to smuggle into the country have been revealed by Australian Border Force, including zombie weapons, taxidermied bears and knives concealed in credit cards.

There has been a recent influx of zombie-related weapons from people who believe an undead apocalypse is coming, according to a border force official.

“In the mail centre, you do see a lot more weird and wonderful things come through,” Neil Singh, Acting Inspector at Sydney’s International Mail Gateway, told Yahoo7 News.

“One of the first things that shocked me were, once the zombie apocalypse sort of took off and then we started getting weapons in relation to those.

“We started seeing zombie hammers, there were converted knuckle dusters and Rambo style knives, those sort of things are quite interesting.”

A claw (left) and a knife hidden inside a fake relic (right). Source: Australian Border Force
A claw (left) and a knife hidden inside a fake relic (right). Source: Australian Border Force

Mr Singh works at the Sydney International Mail Gateway which monitors about 70 per cent of the country’s international mail with sniffer dogs, X-rays and inspections.

He says people often try to smuggle various weapons, including “zombie hammers”, “knuckle dusters” and concealable blades hidden in credit cards or pens.

Other strange items include a freshwater crocodile skull, dried seahorses and even a taxidermied black bear.

Mr Singh said that people get creative when trying to smuggle in drugs, packing them in piggy banks, colouring books and toys.

“People will pack drugs into dried fish, they think we can’t pick up on the scent,” he said.

A taxidermied bear
A taxidermied bear. Source: Australian Border Force
A freshwater crocodile skull (left) and dried seahorses (right). Source: Australian Border Force
A freshwater crocodile skull (left) and dried seahorses (right). Source: Australian Border Force

“You get playdough in the yellow tubs, instead of playdough being in them, they’ll swap that for a bag of meth or any other sort of narcotic.”

While people try to bring in live animals, Mr Singh says that he often encounters dead creatures who did not survive the journey.

However, when he was working for Australian Border Force at Sydney Airport, Mr Singh met some other creatures who tried to slither past security.

“We’ve had people come through with snakes strapped to their bodies,” he said.

A concealed credit card knife
A knife concealed as a credit card. Source: Australian Border Force
A ‘zombie knife’ is one of the many wacky things people try to smuggle past airport security. Source: Australian Border Force
A ‘zombie knife’ is one of the many wacky things people try to smuggle past airport security. Source: Australian Border Force

“While they’re travelling across international waters, they’ll have it taped inside their legs.

“They put them in a little sack and then tape it up.”

The Australian Border Force inspected 54.6 million international mail items and detected more than 85,000 prohibited items last financial year.

A 'zombie hammer'
A ‘zombie hammer’ has become a popular item to smuggle past security. Source: Australian Border Force