Rs 1 crore of foreign currency was seized from a hawala operator, who came from Dubai.
Foreign currencies worth Rs one crore was today seized by DRI officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi.
The officers of the Delhi zonal unit of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had mounted surveillance and intercepted a domestic as well as a Dubai-bound international passenger when they were exchanging their bags in the toilet in the security hold area of the airport.
"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," a press release issued by the DRI said.
Under the hub and spoke facility, international passengers are required to clear immigration and security at the boarding airport but no check is done at the last port of exit.
Since such flights also carry domestic passengers, who get off at Delhi and Mumbai, there is a risk that someone, who police is looking for, can leave the country by exchanging boarding passes with someone who may have a pass for the international trip.
DRI officials have seized Saudi Riyal, UAE Dirham and US Dollars of various denominations equivalent to Rs 1,00,88,237 from the two passengers, who have been intercepted by the agency.