Huge haul of dollars, dinars from three air passengers

The officials, who were checking passengers who were about to board a flight to Dubai, intercepted Mohamed Abdul Majeeth (32) and Mohamed Yusuf Ali (31) of Chennai. In the search that followed on both the persons, the officials recovered Kuwaiti dinars from their hand baggage. The officials seized the foreign currency worth Rs 15.21 lakh.

In the second incident, the Customs officials intercepted Sarbutheen Ali (58) from Chennai, who was about to board the flight to Malaysia. When they searched him and his baggage, the officials recovered US dollar worth Rs 7.23 lakh. All three of them have been detained for inquiry.

Meanwhile, gold worth over Rs 50 lakh has been seized from two passengers who arrived at Coimbatore from Sharjah, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said on Saturday.

Based on a tip-off, the DRI officials kept strict vigil at the airport and intercepted the two passengers for a check, said a press release from the agency. The check yielded the gold in the form of foils weighing 1,420 gm worth Rs 56 lakh, the release said. Since the offence was bailable, both belonging to Mumbai were released on bail, the release added.