The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials have seized foreign currencies worth ₹45 lakh hidden in cooked meat pieces, peanuts and biscuit packets from a passenger at the Delhi airport, officials said on Wednesday.
The unique modus operandi of currency smuggling came to light on Tuesday evening when the security personnel intercepted a passenger, Murad Ali, at Terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport over his “suspicious” behaviour. He was there to board an Air India flight to Dubai.
“Upon checking the passengers’ baggage, high volume of foreign currencies were found concealed in cooked mutton pieces, peanuts, biscuit packets and other eatables,” CISF spokesperson Assistant Inspector General Hemendra Singh said.
“This is a unique and peculiar way of concealing foreign currency for smuggling,” Mr. Singh said.
A video of the interception provided by the force showed the security personnel cracking peanuts, unzipping sealed biscuit packets and digging into oily meat pieces to extract an assortment of Saudi Riyal, Qatari Riyal, Kuwaiti Dinar, Omani Riyal and Euro rolled and wrapped neatly inside.
The estimated worth of the seized cache is ₹45 lakh and the passenger has been handed over to the customs authorities for further investigation, the CISF spokesperson said.
