Duo caught with €2.9m in fake bills at Dubai airport

Two men were caught with €2.9 million in fake bills at the Dubai International Airport, a court heard on Tuesday. According to public prosecution records, the two Pakistani men, aged 51 and 36, were detained by the police at the airport on July 29.
A total of 500 fake bills were found in their possession. They allegedly intended to circulate the counterfeit notes.
They denied the charge at the Court of First Instance.
A customs inspector said he was on duty at 2.30am at terminal 1 when a flight from Italy landed. "The 51-year-old accused arrived and put a handbag for X-ray screening. It looked suspicious because of the density of the notes inside.
"I then searched the bag and found a large amount of bills which looked counterfeit. The traveler denied the money was his and claimed the other accused handed it over to him prior to arriving here," the inspector told the prosecutors.
The traveler also told the inspectors he was carrying another bag which he had checked in, under his name, with the luggage. "We found over ?2.9 million in his bags. The money looked fake as it all had the same serial number. We took the notes to a money exchange office and confirmed it was counterfeit."
A report from the general directorate of criminal evidence and criminology showed the notes seized from the defendants were all fake as they "totally differed" from genuine bank notes.
One of the bills, from which all the other notes had been faked, was seized from the 36-year-old defendant's wallet.
The 51-year-old accused claimed to investigators that he was unaware the bags contained fake bills and that it all belonged to the other man.
The trial will continues on November 4.
mary@khaleejtimes.com