By Jung Min-ho





The gold bars and the underwear two Vietnamese flight attendants working for Asiana Airlines attempted to smuggle into the country. /Courtesy of the Korea Customs Service

Two Vietnamese flight attendants working for Asiana Airlines, Korea's second largest carrier, have been detained after trying to smuggle 19 kilograms of gold into the country, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) said Thursday.

According to the KCS Incheon office, the attendants were concealing 1-kilogram-gold bars ― 10 on one and nine on the other ― in their underwear when they arrived at Incheon International Airport on June 5 from Vietnam.

The KCS said this was not their first smuggling attempt, saying it has confirmed that the two succeeded in smuggling 13 kilograms of gold into Korea on three occasions in April.

They will face charges of attempting to smuggle 32 kilograms of gold, worth about 1.5 billion won ($1.33 million), into the country.

The prosecution will likely request an arrest warrant for the two, who have been held at Incheon Seobu Police Station.

"They exploited the fact that customs officials don't check flight attendants strictly," the KCS said. "They tried with 2 kilograms of gold at first, and then increased the volume."

The KCS has also secured surveillance camera footage showing the two give gold bars to a man at a parking lot in Seoul. In cooperation with customs officials overseas, the KCS is trying to confirm the man's identity and whether he was involved in a smuggling ring.

This is not the first gold-smuggling attempt by Asiana's flight attendants. A Vietnamese crew was caught in October after trying to smuggle 6 kilograms of gold into the country at Incheon International Airport.

The KCS said it is running a special team to tackle gold-smuggling cases, which have noticeably increased over the past few months.

Last month, the KCS said it uncovered four criminal rings that smuggled 2,348 kilograms of gold into the country between 2014 and 2015.