BY WILL COLLINS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Police arrested a man in Johannesburg, South Africa after he swallowed 220 diamonds worth $2.3 million in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country.

“We nabbed him just before he went through the security checkpoint,” said Paul Ramaloko, the spokesman for South Africa’s elite police unit known as Hawks.

Ramaloko confirmed that it is still unclear whether the suspect had swallowed the diamonds prior to arriving at the airport or if he swallowed them in panic while passing through security.However, laxatives were used to help authorities successfully recover the diamonds.

According to the Global Post, the suspect is a 25-year-old male of Lebanese descent.

Earlier this year in March, a 27-year-old Lebanese man was the suspect in another diamond-smuggling attempt where the goods totaled $1.7 million.The Global Post affirms that authorities are investigating if these two incidents are linked in a diamond-smuggling scheme.

Reuters reports that the suspect of this most recent smuggling attempt is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.