A probe into the foreign currency smuggling racket, busted by sleuths from Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on July 24, revealed that carriers earned a whopping amount of Rs 50, 000 every time they visited Dubai.
The foreign currency in Dubai was handed over to the illegal foreign exchange (Forex) operators. Every carrier visited Dubai at least three to four times a month and earned Rs 1.50 lakh as a commission for their job, agency sources said.
In an overnight operation at the T2 Terminal of the Mumbai Airport, a DRI team acting on a tip-off, intercepted four passengers as they were headed to Dubai and Bangkok in two separate flights.
The passengers were detained soon after they were about to board their respective flights. A hefty sum of USD 410,000 (around Rs 2.75 crore) was recovered from their hand-baggage as the money was found to be concealed in four laptop bags.
“The cartel had devised a unique way of smuggling out foreign currency. A few members of the cartel would be booked for domestic travel through Air India while a few other members would be booked for international travel, all within a few hours of each other,” a DRI official said.
“The foreign currency, to be smuggled, would be carried by the domestic passengers, who would hand over the same in carefully sealed laptop bags to their counterparts travelling abroad at the food court of T2, Mumbai airport,” the official added.
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The international passengers, by then, would have completed their check-in formalities and passed through the process of baggage screening. An hour before boarding, the international passengers will exchange bags with domestic passengers and proceed to the boarding gates.
“Two passengers were intercepted when they were about to board their flight to Dubai. Parallelly, another team intercepted two more passengers when they were about to board the flight to Bangkok.
Upon further investigation, the DRI learnt that the arrested passengers had made more than 100 such trips over the past year and smuggled more than Rs 50 crore of foreign currency out of the country. “Smuggling foreign currency damages our economy by removing foreign exchange from the commerce of our country
Dubai smuggling Mumbai Airport Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Forex Foreign Exchange T2 Terminal Foreign Currency international passengers smuggling racket domestic travel
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