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Hyderabad DRI seizes foreign currency, arrests air passenger at RGIA

DRI seizes foreign currency

Hyderabad: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence(DRI) officials of Hyderabad Zonal Unit apprehended an air passenger at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad for indulging in smuggling foreign currency(FC) on Friday. The DRI officials have seized foreign currency worth over 67 lakhs from passengers’s possession.The physical transportation of cash across an international border is one of the oldest and most basic forms of money laundering according to the DRI report.

Going further into the details, acting on specific intelligence, the officers of DRI, Hyderabad Zonal Unit apprehended an air passenger bound to travel to Dubai from Hyderabad on Friday, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. When frisked the officials found foreign currency, “Opening the hand baggage of the passenger, foreign currency (US Dollars), equivalent to INR Rs. 67,11,250 was recovered, which was cleverly concealed beneath the plastic support sheets in the internal bottom and top sides of the trolley bag,” said apex anti-smuggling agency of India in an official statement.

Subsequently DRI officials seized foreign currency and the passenger was arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 and remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation to identify the network is in progress.

Explaining the modus operandi of the FC smugglers in its report on ‘Smuggling in India report 2022-23’ released by DRI said, “Foreign Currency (FC) remains one of the important items smuggled out of India either by outgoing passengers or through export cargo. The syndicates involved in FC smuggling are almost the same as those involved in gold smuggling. The same carriers, who smuggle gold while entering into India, are often found carrying FC , while going out of the country . The smuggled FC is generally used for the purchase of gold and other contraband, which is then smuggled into India. These Syndicates use both foreign and Indian nationals as FC carriers”.

Further report by DRI added, physical transportation of cash as a method of money laundering is not restricted to a particular type of crime and is rampant across drug trafficking and illegal trafficking of other commodities such as alcohol and tobacco. “It is also used widely by criminals involved in other illicit activities including tax frauds, wildlife/ weapons/ arms smuggling. It is done to obliterate the audit trail”, added the DRI report.