Customs seizes foreign currency worth Rs 39 L in shipment to Singapore

Based on a specific intelligence that foreign currency was likely to be smuggled through courier, Customs officials detained a shipment to Singapore at the International Courier Terminal here. The declaration said the carton box contained tumblers, steel plates, apparels and spices. But growing suspicious, officials decided to examine it.

When it opened, they found 25 quarter steel plates and other declared items. But they realised that the plates were unusually heavy and made of high gauge steel. On closer examination, officials realised that the plates were made by moulding two separate steel plates together. They cut the plates open to find pound sterling notes concealed inside ingeniously. In all, officials recovered 40,000 Great Britain Pounds in denomination of 50, equivalent to Rs 38.64 lakh, and seized it under the Customs Act, 1962, and FEM (Export and Import of Currency) Regulations, 2015. A Chennai-based man who booked the consignment was also arrested.