The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Air passenger held with foreign currency cache

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2007
ePaper


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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Air passenger held with foreign currency cache

P. Oppili

OLD TECHNIQUE IS BACK: C. Rajan, Commissioner of Customs, Airport, showing the footwear in which foreign currencies were concealed. — Photo: A Muralitharan

CHENNAI: The clock has apparently been turned back and a time-tested smuggling technique is in vogue. That's what officials of Air Intelligence unit of Airport Customs realised on Monday, when they found foreign currencies sewed into the footwear of a Colombo-bound passenger.

Worth Rs.13 lakh, they were in the form of US dollar, euro, Swiss franc, Saudi riyal, Kuwaiti dinar, Brunei ringgit and UAE dirham. The technique was resurfacing after 12 years, according to C. Rajan, Commissioner of Customs, Airport.

He told reporters on Tuesday that said around 7.30 p.m., the officials intercepted Aribu Thippu Sulthan (35) of Ramanathapuram district, who was on his way to board a Singapore-bound SriLankan airlines plane, which passes through Colombo. He was carrying flowers and betel leaves in four boxes, claiming he was planning to sell them in Sri Lanka. This raised the suspicion of the officials. The trade was not lucrative.

The thick footwear he was wearing also raised doubts. He was asked to remove it. An X-ray scan revealed a small bundle. The staff cut open the rubber soles and found a cavity filled with six bundles of currencies. The passenger had also concealed foreign currencies in his cellular phone. Mr. Rajan said the Intelligence unit had information that foreign currencies were being procured from various places, including Burma Bazaar in north Chennai. Following this, authorities stepped up vigil at the airport.

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