Three busted in attempt to use bananas to smuggle $45 into S. Africa jail

When three South African men decided to smuggle money to an imprisoned relative, they sliced bananas and slid the monies inside.

According to the Department of Correctional Services, the three tried smuggling 600 rand (a bout $45) into the Barbeton Maximum Correctional Center last Saturday.

They presented a basket of fruits – bananas and apples, with those with the monies hidden below. ‘From a distance, it looked like normal bananas but … there was money hidden inside each banana,’ the correctional service’ spokesman Mesia Hlungwani said in a statement.

He said the arrests were a breakthrough in reducing smuggling into the country’s detention facilities. Their motive for smuggling money into the jails has yet to be communicated.

‘We warned the public about this before and we promised that those who smuggle in will face the mighty hand of the law. When we say zero tolerance to smugglers, we mean business,’ he added.