History Main / CoffinContraband

** In "Remembrance of the Daleks", the Doctor hides the Hand of Omega in a coffin and arranges to have it buried in the local graveyard.
** In "Silver Nemesis", the Cybermen hide the Nemesis statue inside Lady Peinforte's casket.

* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': [[Recap/TintinCigarsOfThePharaoh Cigars of the Pharaoh]]'' has coffins are used for smuggling what in most cases is presumably opium. Three coffins are used to transport Tintin, Snowy and Dr. Sarcophagus instead, but the smugglers don't realize until after the coffins have already been thrown overboard at the sign of approaching coastguards.

* The Ventriloquist's original debut in ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' had an especially gruesome case: drugs are smuggled through customs a coffin... ''inside'' the corpse of a henchman who'd [[YouHaveFailedMe failed]] him one time too many.

* The Ventriloquist's original debut in ''ComicBook/Batman'' had an especially gruesome case: drugs are smuggled through customs a coffin... ''inside'' the corpse of a henchman who'd [[YouHaveFailedMe failed]] him one time too many.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow'' episode "The Harum-Scarum Sanitarium" there is a subversion, Doctor Coffin is smuggling gold as fake dead bodies with wigs and sheets with gold acting as making the body shape.

Not to be confused with hiding the corpse's own belongings with him/her.

* ''Liquidate Paris'', by Creator/SvenHassel. Two Section do this to smuggle a black-market pig across a guarded bridge in German-occupied Paris, in a scene that appears to have been plagiarized from ''Film/TheTripAcrossParis''.

* Dumbledore in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' [[spoiler:has the Elder Wand buried with him]] in a sarcophagus, figuring that barely anyone in the Wizarding world would recognize the artifact's significance even if they found it, much less think to check this particular coffin for this particular item. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]

* In one of the ''Literature/DonCamillo'' stories, partisan leader Peppone and village priest Don Camillo collude to hide a lot of incriminating weapons this way, once from the German occupiers and once from their British liberators, who are keen for the partisans to disarm and disband.

* ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'': The narrator of "Do Not Open" finds himself looking after a strange coffin containing… something.

* In ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Carrot gets rid of the [[EvilWeapon gonne]] by putting it in Constable Cuddy's coffin, thereby also giving Cuddy's spirit a ''really'' mighty burial weapon.

* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': [[Recap/TintinCigarsOfThePharaoh Cigars of the Pharaoh]]'' has coffins are used for smuggling what in most cases is presumably opium. Three coffins are used to transport Tintin, Snowy and Dr. Sarcophagus instead, but the smugglers don't realize until after the coffins have already been thrown overboard at the sign of approaching coastguards.
* In the second-ever ''ComicBook/PlasticMan' story, Eel O'Brian infiltrates a gang who are using coffins to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the US.
* In ''ComicBook/JonahHex'' # 21 (original series), Jonah's pa hides a bag of stolen gold inside a coffin in the local undertaker's. By the time he manages to get back to it, the coffin is placed inside a mine and buried with dynamite: the deceased's last wishes being to entombed in the mine he had devoted his life to working.

* In the French film ''Film/TheTripAcrossParis'' (''La traversée de Paris'') (1956), a coffin is used to smuggle a black market pig past the checkpoints in Nazi-occupied Paris.
* ''Film/{{Highway61}}'': Bangs uses the dead body to hide drugs. They travel with the coffin strapped to the roof of the car.
* In the FilmSerial ''Secret Service in Darkest Africa'' (1943). After being given permission to bury their dead in Allied territory, the evil Nazis callously dispose of the bodies and fill the coffins with explosives for their secret agents to pick up later.
* Drugs are being smuggled inside dead bodies in ''Film/BadBoysII'', leading to a BlackComedy scene where the two cops have to search various bodies in the morgue, including a well-endowed female corpse.
-->'''Mike Lowery::''' What? [[ILoveTheDead I ain't doin' nothin'.]] What am I gonna do with these big-ass fake dead titties?
* In ''Film/BreakheartPass'', Deakin discovers the coffins in the baggage car are filled with rifles.
* ''[=HHhH=]'' (a.k.a. ''Film/TheManWithTheIronHeart''). The assassins who killed UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich plan to evade the subsequent dragnet by getting smuggled out of Prague in coffins from the church crypt they are hiding in. Unfortunately, the German authorities track them down first.

* In ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Carrot gets rid of the [[EvilWeapon gonne]] by putting it in Constable Cuddy's coffin, thereby also giving Cuddy's spirit a ''really'' mighty burial weapon.

* ''Literature/NumberTheStars'' has a case of this when a coffin loaded with essential supplies for Danish-born Jewish refugees is used in order to avoid being seized by Nazi soldiers. There was a close encounter with one until the soldier was "advised" that the coffin bore the dead victim of a typhus.

* In ''Literature/WithoutRemorse'' by Creator/TomClancy, set during the Vietnam conflict, heroin is being smuggled from Asia back to the US in the bodies of dead soldiers.
* Literature/StephaniePlum has this in ''Two For The Dough''. US military coffins are used to smuggle weapons.
* One of ''Literature/TheExecutioner'' novels (likely also inspired by the Frank Lucas affair) has heroin being smuggled in coffins marked Remains Non-Viewable (used for mutilated corpses who couldn't be given an open casket funeral) to dissuade anyone from opening them.

* In ''The Golden Rendezvous'' by Creator/AlistairMaclean, the ship is searched for [[EmptyQuiver a stolen nuclear mini-missile]]. Later the protagonist looks in the one place they didn't search, the coffins they're conveying to the occupants home country for burial. [[spoiler:Later the scientist who invented the missile gets smuggled in the coffins in its place -- he's not happy about it.]]

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' Director Fury hid the data from [[spoiler:Project T.A.H.I.T.I.]] in Phil Coulson's unoccupied grave.
* In the first season of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Reese planned on disposing of Dewey's broken birthday present by hiding it in his great aunt's coffin.
* In the ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Kill the Messenger", Perlmutter had a coffin of a woman who died years ago exhumed to determine cause of death, but the coffin contained nothing but sandbags. Castle started to leave, commenting that it seemed like a waste of a high-end casket, [[EurekaMoment then turned around and suggested that some high-end caskets have a small drawer in the lid]]. Perlmutter found the drawer, which contained a photo of the victim with a prominent senatorial candidate from the '70s. This led to Beckett and Castle uncovering a scandal which led to the woman's murder and helped them finally get justice for the victim.
* In one episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'', the team convinces a Syndicate smuggler that the best way to get his employer's dirty money out of the country and into a bank in Switzerland is to declare that his beautiful young MailOrderBride (Casey), who had just died from a drug overdose, is to be buried in Europe, and conceal the money in the coffin. The coffin is 'accidentally' dropped while being loaded onto the plane, breaking it open to reveal that the body in the coffin is fake and the money is gone (stolen by the team at the funeral parlor). When the smuggler's bosses return to his place and see Casey still alive, they assume that he had been planning on stealing their money and running off with his pretty young wife, and have the smuggler killed.
* ''Series/NewTricks'': In "Life Expectancy", the murder weapon -- a marble bust -- was buried in a grave underneath a coffin.
* ''Series/TheDoctorBlakeMysteries'': In "Golden Years", the killer attempts to dispose of an incriminating watch by placing it in the coffin of the VictimOfTheWeek.
* In ''Series/WhoopsApocalypse'', this is one of the ways Lacrobat smuggles the Quark bomb to the Middle East (with the bodies of two circus dwarfs and himself in a ringmaster's outfit to complete the disguise). Unfortunately, he loses track of the coffin, and it ends up being taken to a crematorium. Kaboom.
* Apparently a local custom in ''Series/DeathInParadise'', as mentioned early on in "A Personal Murder". Specifically, people put the deceased's cell phone in his/her coffin, taking into account the possibility of the deceased sending a message from the grave. After Cedrik's death, Dwayne gets a text message from him declaring "I was murdered" as his dead body was being burned.
-->'''DI Goodman''': ...Isn't that a bit dangerous? Don't the batteries explode?
* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "Fallen Angel", a cache of stolen diamonds is buried in an old grave in a no longer active cemetery. However, the thief was arrested and sent to prison so the diamonds stayed there for 20 years.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In "Love on Ice", the killer disposes of the murder weapon by placing it in the coffin of the VictimOfTheWeek.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': A victim's fraternity brother places the fraternity paddle that he used to sexually assault an initiate in the coffin of his murdered friend. Luckily for the detectives, the coffin is ceremonial only as the victim is cremated, and the personal items from the coffin are removed and stored until the next-of-kin instructs the funeral home on what to do with them, giving Benson and Stabler time to find the item before it can be destroyed.
* ''Series/MiamiVice'': During the Vietnam War, Colonel William Maynard (played by G. Gordon Liddy) smuggled heroin out of Vietnam by hiding it inside corpses. Unfortunately, the wood alcohol used to preserve the corpses turned the heroin toxic, killing many people.
* One episode of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' has the crew picking up the body of one of Mal's war buddies, only for the Feds to accuse them of moving contraband. They know this trope is in play, but can't tell what the contraband is [[spoiler: because they're actually specially-synthesized organs intended for transplant; and the corpse isn't actually dead]].

* In ''Film/theFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #28, smuggler Peter Wade uses a coffin that is supposed to contain a Chinese mummy destined to Dr. Jones' museum to smuggle in what he believes to be a shipment of arms bound for [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles the IRA]].

* ''Film/AmericanGangster'' is about Frank Lucas and his smuggling ring that may have used coffins to bring heroin into the US.

!!Examples

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''[[ComicBook/{{Tintin}} Cigars of the Pharaoh]]'' has coffins are used for smuggling what in most cases is presumably opium. Three coffins are used to transport Tintin, Snowy and Dr. Sarcophagus instead, but the smugglers don't realize until after the coffins have already been thrown overboard at the sign of approaching coastguards.
* In the second-ever ComicBook/PlasticMan story, Eel O'Brian infiltrates a gang who are using coffins to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the US.

[[folder:Film--Live Action]]

-->"What? [[ILoveTheDead I ain't doin' nothin'.]] What am I gonna do with these big-ass fake dead titties?"

* ''[=HHhH=]'' (aka ''Film/TheManWithTheIronHeart''). The assassins who killed UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich plan to evade the subsequent dragnet by getting smuggled out of Prague in coffins from the church crypt they are hiding in. Unfortunately, the German authorities track them down first.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' Director Fury hid the data from [[spoiler: Project T.A.H.I.T.I.]] in Phil Coulson's unoccupied grave.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'': After Cinn murders George Ozone, she disposes of the murder weapon by hiding it in a stranger's coffin.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Podcast]]

-->''"Who's gonna say anything? There's a hearse going into Arlington cemetery? They gonna stop a soldier from being buried?"''

* In the second ever ComicBook/PlasticMan story, Eel O'Brian infiltrates a gang who are using coffins to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the US.

* ''[=HHhH=]'' (aka ''Film/TheManWithTheIronHeart''). The assassins who killed UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich plan to evade the subsequent dragnet by getting smuggled out of Prague in coffins from the church crypt they are hiding in. Unfortunately the German authorities track them down first.

* In ''The Golden Rendezvous'' by Creator/AlistairMaclean, the ship is searched for a [[EmptyQuiver stolen nuclear mini-missile]]. Later the protagonist looks in the one place they didn't search, the coffins they're conveying to the occupants home country for burial. [[spoiler:Later the scientist who invented the missile gets smuggled in the coffins in its place -- he's not happy about it.]]

* ''Series/AufWiedersehenPet'': In "Last Rites", Oz develops a sideline in selling pornographic videos. When his mate Headly Irwin dies, Oz tries to smuggle the video tapes back to Britain in Headly's coffin.

* In one episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'', the team convinces a Syndicate smuggler that the best way to get his employer's dirty money out of the country and into a bank in Switzerland is to declare that his beautiful young MailOrderBride (Casey), who had just died from a drug overdose, is to be buried in Europe, and conceal the money in the coffin. The coffin is 'accidentally' dropped while being loaded in the plane, breaking it open to reveal that the body in the coffin is fake and the money is gone (stolen by the team at the funeral parlor). When the smuggler's bosses return to his place and see Casey still alive, they assume that he had been planning on stealing their money and running off with his pretty young wife, and have the smuggler killed.

* ''Series/{{Shameless}}'': In episode #8.14, a coffin is carried through the estate, supposedly with Paddy inside, but it turns out this was Paddy's way of smuggling guns to the rest of the Maguires.