Customs seize Rs 120m from Dubai bound plane

Rasika SOMARATHNA

Customs officials at the Katunayake International Airport has found more than Rs.120 million in foreign currencies stashed under a seat of an airplane which was scheduled to fly to Dubai, Monday night.

Airport sources said that the money was found after being alerted by the flight crew on an Dubai bound Emirates flight scheduled to leave at 9.30 pm on Monday.

According to unconfirmed sources the large amount of money was wrapped in carbon papers and was stored in several paper bags.

Officials have now begun investigations into how such a large volume of money was taken to the aircraft undetected.

The finding of such a large volume of cash on an Airplane is considered to be one of the largest detections of its kind in recent times.

Officials at the Customs yesterday however refused to furnish further details into the incident saying that the investigation in this regard was ongoing.