A French pensioner was arrested recently after attempting to smuggle his young Russian wife in a suitcase into the EU. Under the Schengen rules, the poor woman could have merely sat comfortably next to him on the train, but instead, the man’s young wife suffered the cramped confines of a suitcase.
It seems even if you do not hold EU citizenship, with the Schengen passport-free borders, wives or husbands of EU citizens can pass with pleasure, as long as they can prove their marital status. Smuggling your wife in a suitcase is just plain unnecessary.
However, the Frenchman, who is in his sixties, apparently didn’t known this and, according to DW, they both got arrested on the border between Belarus and Poland for “ attempting to avoid border controls .”
#Frenchman packs Russian wife in suitcase to enter EU – http://t.co/WvFSIdlI9D http://t.co/5xH5aT7EO2
— 757Live Ireland (@757LiveIE) March 16, 2015
The apparently newlywed couple were traveling from Moscow to Nice by train, and it was when they reached the border between Belarus and Poland that their problems began.
At that point on their journey the eagle-eyed border guards noticed the size of the man’s luggage. Thinking, quite correctly, that the Frenchman was trying to hide something, the guards then asked him to open the suitcase.
Turns out there were no drugs or other illegal contraband inside the suitcase, just a young – and probably very flexible – young woman. According to RT , the Frenchman told the border guards, “Hi, and this is my wife,” as they opened the suitcase .
What would you do to cross border? Frenchman tries to smuggle Russian wife in suitcase http://t.co/lqCsZElh6e pic.twitter.com/NJcXzM0sYD — RT (@RT_com) March 16, 2015
A spokesman for the Polish border guards told the story to the media.
“It was the Russian wife of the owner of the bag. She was in good shape and wasn’t in need of any medical attention.”
Discussing the fact that the French gentleman obviously thought his young wife, who was in her thirties, would not be allowed to cross the border, the guard explained that she could have merely sat next to him all the way.
“If she had traveled sitting next to her husband, she would have gone through smoothly. This was the first time I’ve seen someone travel like this. She very well could have been a victim of human trafficking.”
According to a police spokesman, around 100 people try to sneak through the border each year and, if caught, can face up to three years in jail. The Frenchman and his young Russian wife in a suitcase were lucky that they were allowed to leave and return to Belarus.
In other smuggling news , the Inquisitr notes that a woman was caught at London’s Gatwick Airport with cocaine worth $270,000 stuffed in her bra.
[Image: Belarus/Poland border CC by-SA 3.0 Rados?aw Dro?d?ewski ]