The Delhi Zonal Unit (DZU) of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI),Ministry of Finance  has busted at Hawala racket adopting an ingenious modus operandi of foreign currency smuggling at the IGI airport, New Delhi yesterday and seized foreign currencies worth about ₹ 1 crore.

Officers of the Delhi Zonal Unit of DRI had mounted surveillance and intercepted a domestic as well as a Dubai-bound international passenger at Terminal 3 of IGI, Airport, New Delhi while they were exchanging their bags in the toilet in the security hold area of IGI Airport. DRI officials have seized Saudi Riyal, UAE Dirham and US Dollars of various denominations equivalent to ₹ 1,00,88,237 from these two passengers.

The domestic passenger had booked a ticket in Air India’s Bhubaneswar-bound International Flight AI 075 that was running on “Hub and Spoke” model. He was travelling only for the purpose of handing-over the foreign currencies to the international passenger going to Dubai by Jet Airways flight, after clearing Customs, Immigration and security checks as a domestic passenger to escape stringent checking of international passengers by Customs. Normally, smugglers carry foreign currencies to Dubai and bring gold, demand for which had peaked post demonetization.

Further investigations are in progress.

Hawala racket exposed: domestic-to-international passenger scheme used to smuggle foreign currency past airport checks, enforcement ongoing. A hawala racket involving foreign currency smuggling at an international airport was uncovered when DRI intercepted coordinated activity in the security hold area, where a domestic passenger handed multiple foreign currencies to an international passenger to evade enhanced customs checks; seized currencies included Saudi Riyal, UAE Dirham and US Dollars, and further investigations are ongoing.