Customs officers at Suvarnabhumi Airport detained an Italian man on Thursday who attempted to smuggle a 500 million baht diamond-encrusted watch into the country in a bid to avoid paying duty.
Silvano Wang arrived on a flight from Hong Kong and proceeded through the Nothing to Declare lane where he was called over for an inspection.
Initial questioning revealed he was making a very quick trip to Thailand arriving in the morning and leaving later in the day which raised eyebrows.
It didn’t take long for the customs inspectors to find a small pouch containing a Jacob and Co Swiss “Billionaire” watch worth over 500 million baht hidden in the luggage.
The Italian claimed the watch was worth only 27 million baht and not 500 million in the hope of avoiding the required 61 million baht in duty.
The watch was confiscated and the Italian detained while the matter was resolved.
