Two air passengers held with foreign currency, smuggled goods

Customs collectorate officials at the Karachi airport conducted two operations on Monday and arrested as many suspects with foreign currency and smuggled items.

Syed Irfan Ali, a spokesman for the customs, said the customs staff deployed at theInternational Departure Lounge of the Collectorate of Customs seized 36,000

Saudi riyals, equivalent to Rs2.7 million Pakistani rupees, from the possession of a Dubaibound passenger, named Imran, on board Fly Dubai Airways flight number FZ 332.

The passenger had hidden the riyals in the clothes he was wearing. Action was taken against the passenger under the Customs Act. Irfan Ali said the government and the State Bank of Pakistan had set a limit of $5,000 per passenger for passengers going abroad.

In a separate incident, the Pakistan Customs foiled a bid to smuggle goods worth more than Rs5.5 million. The customs staff posted at the International Arrival Lounge of the airport stopped a passenger named Bilal Ghani, who had arrived in Karachi from Bahrain via Gulf Airlines flight GF 752, on the green channel and inquired him if there were any prohibited and day payable items in his luggage.

When the passenger’s luggage was scanned after his unsatisfactory answer, mobile phones and iPad Apple watches, a laptop, computer parts, perfumes and coffee were found in the luggage. The luggage was seized and the passenger was detained. A case has been registered against the passenger under the Customs Act and further investigations are underway.