The customs intelligence personnel at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday night arrested a 35-year old Singapore bound passenger and seized from his luggage unendorsed foreign currencies worth Tk 1.3 crore, they said on Friday.
The customs intelligence unit described it as the airport’s fourth largest seizure in two months.
The unit’s assistant revenue officer, Mostafa Jamal, said that they arrested MA Jewel Rana with pound sterling, euro, Singapore dollar, Saudi riyal, Japanese yen and Switch frank worth Tk 1,32,76,782, found during re-scanning of his luggage.
‘When we challenged him at the departure lobby for his suspicious movements, Rana told us that he was carrying no bags, but on checking the entry list we found his luggage containing the foreign currencies,’ he said.
The Bangladesh law, he said, required outgoing passengers to get his foreign currencies endorsed by a bank.
Rana, who hails from Naria in Shariatpur, however, later told customs that someone asked him to carry the luggage to Singapore, said Jamal.
Police said that Rana’s passport show that he had gone to Singapore 11 times this year.
The customs unit handed over Rana to the Airport Police Station and filed a case against him for violation of currency rules.
The custom intelligence personnel said that they seized foreign currencies worth Tk 1.2 crore from a Dubai-bound passenger on July 21, Tk 1.8 crore from a Singapore-bound passenger Sunny on August 11, and Tk one crore in abandoned condition on August 15 at the airport.
