Customs foil bid to smuggle in forged credit cards

Dubai Customs at Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3 foiled a bid to smuggle 50 counterfeit 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.

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 odd behaviour while he was in the arrivals section. Customs inspectors monitored the passenger’s movement as he was walking and acting abnormally near the baggage carousel.

Al Mugahwi said that Dubai Customs inspectors 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.

His luggage was meticulously searched from which four packets of playing cards were found hidden in a secret pocket at the bottom and sealed as if they were new. When they were opened, 50 credit cards with names of three different holders for three different banks were found inside.

Al Mugahwi said: "During interrogating the passenger confessed to customs inspectors that a man and a woman of another Asian origin forged his passport and gave him an amount of money for carrying the luggage after they had loaded it with the counterfeit credit cards. He was to deliver it to somebody residing in Dubai.”

He stressed customs inspectors’ skills in body language and inspection techniques enabled them to uncover the operation that could have endangered the economic facilities in Dubai and the UAE due to the potential fraud of using the counterfeit cards in buying goods and withdrawing money.

He said that the passenger was transferred to Dubai police office in Dubai Airport for necessary legal action against him.

Al Mugahwi commended the inspectors for their vigilance and devotion to work.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.