MUMBAI: The customs departments’ Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) which caught five persons, including four Sudanese nationals and a Mumbai-based hotel manager, for trying to smuggle out foreign currency valued around Rs 13 crore on Tuesday, suspect the cash was proceeds of a gold smuggling racket.
Based on specific intelligence and profiling of passengers, the AIU on Tuesday morning intercepted the four foreign nationals who were about to board an international flight from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (CSMI) Airport and seized foreign currency valued around Rs 9 crore. TOI was the first to report it.
The arrested accused have been identified as Eklas Mohammed, Ahmed Elyas Hamza, Ahmed Ismail Haraza, Eltayeb Moosa and Mumbai’s Essam Ali. In a follow-up action, search was conducted on the premises of Hotel Mariam where Ali was held with foreign currency equivalent to approximately Rs 3.4 crore.
All the accused booked under the Foreign Exchange Management Act were produced before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate and remanded to judicial custody. Sources said initially it was believed that the cash may be part of a drugs, gold smuggling or a hawala racket. Now they strongly suspect it was proceeds of gold smuggling.
