Two women caught smuggling foreign currency

Customs personnel arrested two women at Jinnah International Airport on Friday for trying to smuggle foreign currency worth over a million rupees to the UAE.

The women passengers had arrived to board Emirates Airline flight EK-601 for Dubai early in the wee hours when female officials of the Customs Model Collectorate Preventive searched them and found wads of foreign currency hidden in their undergarments. The officials found Saudi riyals worth Rs120,000, UAE dirhams worth Rs50,000 and Japanese yen amounting to Rs500,000.

The women, whose identities were not released immediately, were booked in case. They appeared before a court, which remanded them to the custody of Customs officials for three days. A Pakistan Customs spokesman said the smuggling bid was foiled in an operation based on tip-off that an attempt to smuggle foreign currency would be made by a group of passengers.

He said the staff had been alerted and told to keep a close watch on all outgoing passengers, especially bound for Dubai.