mumbai

Updated: Dec 21, 2017 16:07 IST

Three passengers flying between Mumbai and the Middle East were caught trying to smuggle foreign currency and gold at Mumbai airport in a 24-hour period.

On Wednesday, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) intercepted flier Mustari Shaikh while she was waiting to board a flight to Dubai. “After a detailed check of her baggage, we recovered US$60,000, which is around Rs 38.22 lakh,” said an officer, who did not wish to be named. “Around $5,000 was hidden in clothes inside her handbag, another $20,000 was inside a jam bottle, $2,500 in a plastic bottle, $15,000 in a bread packet, $7,500 in a talcum powder tin and $10,000 was concealed cleverly in two Marie biscuit packets in her checked-in baggage.” Shaikh has been arrested.

In another incident on the same day, flier Arif Deshmukh, who was heading to Dubai, was arrested after a search revealed him to be carrying $67,200, or Rs 42.80 lakh, all wrapped in an old English newspaper and kept among his clothes in hand baggage.

AIU officials said that usually, people carry foreign currency to buy gold, which is then smuggled back into the country.

A day earlier, Sudanese citizen Alaaeldin Gasmalla, who arrived from Jeddah, was arrested for not declaring one gold bar and eight gold bangles, which weighed a total of 1,563 grams and were valued at Rs 39.41 lakh; he had concealed the gold on his person.