Maldives Customs Service (MCS), on Friday, revealed that it confiscated over MVR 4 million in smuggling attempts since December 2019.
According to a press statement, customs officials intercepted three illegal attempts to smuggle large sums of undeclared foreign currency out of the country, worth over MVR 4 million over the past two months.
On December 12, a 29-year-old local man was caught attempting to smuggle an undeclared sum of foreign currency amounting to MVR 2.1 million.
Later the same day, authorities stopped another smuggling attempt while a 33-year-old Bangladeshi national tried to carry an undeclared sum of foreign currency in the amount of MVR 617,000 out of the country.
In a third incident, on January 22, customs officials confiscated an undeclared sum of MVR 1.3 million from a 31-year-old local man traveling abroad.
Customs disclosed that the aforementioned cases were lodged with the police.
As per the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, it is illegal to carry any sum of money, in local or foreign currency, equivalent to or over USD 20,000 without declaring it to customs.
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