Smugglers busted with $382K in gold and cash under their toupees

Hairpieces of eight?

Inventive modern-day pirates redefined “locking up their valuables” after they were busted at the airport trying to smuggle gold and money under their wigs.

Suspects Magroob Akbarali and Zubair Hassan Rafiyutheen were leaving the Chennai International Airport in India on March 21 when they were apprehended by police, who had become suspicious of their bizarre hairstyles, SWNS reported.

Their suspicions were confirmed when they discovered that the duo’s wonky weaves concealed black packets of gold paste weighing 698 grams. Accompanying footage shows authorities peeling back their counterfeit curls to reveal that they had glued pouches of both cash and gold to the tops of their heads like high-karat hairpieces.

Along with their would-be tou-pays, gold was also discovered in the hapless traffickers’ socks and even rectums. All told, the confiscated contraband was reportedly worth a whopping $382,943.

And apparently this isn’t the first time someone has put their money where their mop is. Just two days earlier, three men were arrested at the same airport for attempting to hide gold beneath their hairpieces, the Daily Mail reported.

Meanwhile, a Colombian man brought new meaning to “powdered wig” after getting busted in Barcelona with $34,000 worth of cocaine under his rug.