The Loop
Two drug smugglers posed as golfers to transport millions of dollars in cocaine
Even the prosecuting lawyer had to admit she was impressed. Two drug smugglers got away with transporting cocaine for nearly two years. And they did it by posing as traveling golfers.
“The method deployed to use golf bags was rather ingenious because to an unsuspecting eye at customs or border control somebody ferrying a golf bag in or out would not cause any suspicion,” Catherine Pattison told jurors, according to the Evening Standard.
However, they "were not remotely interested in playing golf." That's too bad.
Tony Bayne, 52, and Taher Najmzadeh, 53, took their ruse so far that they even had pictures of themselves playing golf. Meanwhile, the clubs they carried actually contained millions of dollars worth of cocaine in the shafts.
When the fake golf buddies were finally caught, customs seized 17 kilograms of cocaine, worth 3.3 million pounds (nearly $5 million). Bayne and Najmzadeh were given money and Caribbean trips for transporting the drugs to Curacao as well as several European cities. They are facing some serious jail time.
No word on what brand of clubs they used. But considering their attention to detail, they probably went all out.