Dubai - WAM
Dubai Customs seizes 25 fraudulent visas and 3 forged passports at Dubai International Airport. Dubai Customs' inspectors at Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 have foiled attempts to smuggle 28 fraudulent documents. Twenty-five fake visas were intercepted with a passenger coming from an Asian country. The vigilant officers also seized three forged African passports in a separate smuggling bid. According to Ali Al Mugahwi, Director of Airport Operations Department at Dubai Customs, the seizure of the 25 fake visas took place when one of the inspectors suspected an Asian passenger as the latter stepped into Customs inspection area of Dubai International Airport Terminal 3. Before starting the routine process of luggage inspection, the officer asked the passenger if he had anything to declare. The passenger denied anxiously. But the alert inspector was suspicious of the commuter's gestures who showed signs of worry and nervousness while talking to the officer. So the inspector became even more wary that the passenger was carrying prohibited items. He immediately searched inside his baggage and found a number of entry permits to some Asian countries. It turned out later that these visas were not genuine. The suspect was attempting to get the fraudulent documents into the UAE for the purpose of delivering them later to other people in exchange for sums of money. In a separate interception, Customs inspectors at Terminal 3 apprehended another passenger of African nationality. Checking the suspect's baggage, the officers uncovered three African passports which were scanned out as fake. The passenger was hiding the forged passports inside a book in his belongings. The vigilant inspectors detected, through the screening machine, an abnormally thick book, which raised their suspicions that the passenger was hiding in something illegal. The officers opened up the book only to find three fraudulent passports hidden carefully in its hollow cover. The papers were issued from an African country.