Dubai Customs at Dubai International Airport- Terminal 3 foiled a bid to smuggle 50 counterfeited credit cards. With a purchase value exceeding Dh1.5 million, the credit cards were hidden by an Asian passenger coming from an Asian country who intended to hand them to some people in the UAE to be used to purchase products and withdraw money from ATMs.
Mr. Ali al Mugahwi, Director of Airport Operations at Dubai Customs said that details of the operation started when a female inspector suspected the passenger’s bizarre behaviors while he was at the Arrivals. Customs inspectors monitored the passenger’s movement as he was walking and acting abnormally near the baggage carousel.
Mr. Al Mugahwi added that Dubai Customs inspectors at the Airport requested the passenger’s passport and examined his luggage when he arrived at the Customs Inspection area only to find another forged passport with a different name and another Asian nationality. When confronted with the fake passport, he confessed to forging it. Hence, his luggage was meticulously searched where four packets of “playing cards” were found hidden in a secret pocket in the bottom of the luggage and strictly sealed as if they were new. When they were opened, 50 credit cards with three different holders’ names for three different banks were inside.
Mr. Al Mugahwi said:" After interrogating the passenger, he confessed to Customs inspectors that a man and a woman of another Asian origin forged his passport and gave him an amount of money in exchange of carrying the luggage after they had already loaded it with the counterfeited credit cards so that he would deliver it to somebody else residing in Dubai.”
Mr. Al Mugahwi stressed that Customs inspectors’ skills in body language and inspection techniques enabled them to uncover the operation which could have endangered the economic facilities in Dubai and the UAE due to the potential fraud of using the counterfeited cards in buying goods and withdrawing money. He also pointed out that the passenger was transferred to Dubai Police office in Dubai Airport (Terminal 3) to take the necessary legal actions against him inline with the mutual cooperation and coordination between both sides.
Mr. Al Mugahwi expressed his gratitude to the inspectors’ cadre due to the great efforts they make in their business domain. He commended as well their vigilance and growing devotion to work as they are provided with a supportive work environment which urges them to give their utmost through the training courses and workshops they constantly receive in order to develop their customs skills, knowledge of body language and the art of suspicion.