Two held as Pune Customs department busts foreign currency hawala racket

The Air Intelligence Unit AIU of the Pune Customs Department has uncovered a hawala racket involving the dollar valued at approximately Rs 347 crore and apprehended two persons in the case an officer said on TuesdayAccording to news agency PTI the Pune Customs Department in a press release issued on Tuesday stated that the accused have been identified as 41yearold Khushbu Agarwal a travel agent and Mumbaibased Mohd Aamir who had supplied the foreign currencyAuthorities have seized foreign currency of different countries from a forex firm in MumbaiThe action followed specific information on a huge quantity of foreign currency concealed between the pages of notebooks and placed inside two trolley bags smuggled out of India by a person using unsuspecting three passengers from Dubai to the city by a Spice Jet flight on February 17 PTI reportedThe AIU officers conducted searches of the baggage as well as of the passengers and recovered USD 400100 equivalent to approximately Rs 347 crore from the bags as per the releaseTheir interrogation revealed that they were students while the bags belonged to AgarwalAgarwal had given the travel package to these three students for their Dubai Trip At the last minute before departure from Pune she handed over two bags to students on the pretext that they contained her office documents urgently required at her Dubai office The students accepted these bags and departed from Pune the release saidAIU officers at Pune Airport detained Agarwal and recorded her statements under the Customs ActAfter she confessed to owning the said foreign currency the officers based on further questioning sent a search team to a Forex firm in Mumbai and apprehended Aamir who had supplied the dollars the Customs Department saidDuring the search of the said firm foreign currencies of various countries were also found on the premisesAIU and Customs officers conducted searches at 10 places in Pune Ahmedabad and Mumbai in the case PTI reportedThe two accused were sent to judicial custodyMumbai Customs seize drugs worth Rs 1022 crore at airportThe Mumbai Customs on Wednesday said that the officials at Mumbai airport seized drugs worth Rs 1022 croreAccording to the customs department the officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport CSMI in Mumbai made a significant drug seizure and they confiscated 1022 kilograms of suspected cocaine and Methaqualone with an estimated market value of approximately Rs 1022 croreOn February 16 2025 a passenger arriving from Entebbe in Uganda on Ugandan Airlines flight UR 430 was intercepted by the officials and during questioning the passenger showed signs of nervousness and admitted to swallowing capsules containing a white crumbled substance believed to be a narcotics the customs department saidIt said that the customs officials with the permission of the judicial magistrate took the passenger for medical supervision to recover the ingested capsules Over the next three days the passenger expelled a total of 84 capsules weighing 1022 kilograms in totalThe substance was confirmed to be suspected cocaine and Methaqualone said an officialThe officials said that the passenger was arrested under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act 1985 and further investigations were underwayWith PTI inputs