Iran Police Reports Discovery of 'Two Billion Tomans in Smuggled Currency' at Imam Khomeini Airport

The commander of Iran's airport police reported the discovery of approximately two billion tomans in smuggled currency at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport. According to Tasnim News Agency on Tuesday, June 30, Hassan Mehri stated that this amount of smuggled currency was discovered 'in four stages during the check and control of luggage accompanying passengers.' Mr. Mehri added that from one passenger arriving from Dubai, only '100,000 dirhams of the UAE was found,' which was 'skillfully concealed in the pocket of a coat.' As reported by the commander of Iran's airport police, officers also seized '30,000 Canadian dollars' and '6,815 euros' from another passenger arriving from Dubai. The discovery of 200,000 US dollars from another passenger arriving from Dubai was also reported. Mr. Mehri also mentioned the seizure of 350,000 US dollars from one of the passengers arriving in Tehran at Imam Khomeini Airport. This police commander announced that 'cases regarding the seized currencies have been filed and referred along with the suspects for legal proceedings to the government’s enforcement agency.' In Iran, numerous reports of the discovery and seizure of various smuggled currencies at the country's entry points are published annually, and there is no exact and official figure for this volume of smuggling. According to the spokesperson for the Anti-Smuggling Goods and Currency Headquarters, 'holding more than 10,000 euros or its equivalent in foreign currencies is considered smuggling.' Qasem Khorshidi had also stated on March 1 of last year that the total physical currency seizures in 2016 amounted to about 10 million dollars, including various currencies. Mr. Khorshidi added that 'about three billion dollars in currency was also smuggled in transfers from 2014 to 2016.' On June 24 of this year, the IRIB news agency reported that customs officers, in their latest operation against smuggling, successfully seized 125,000 dollars in smuggled currency. According to this news agency, 'this amount of smuggled currency was concealed by an outgoing passenger within tea packages.'