DUBAI: Customs officials in Dubai have blocked two separate attempts to smuggle 28 fake documents, including 25 visas, and three passports, at the Dubai International Airport.
A senior customs official said that smuggling of 25 fake visas was intercepted with the arrest of a passenger coming from an Asian country, while three forged African passports were seized in another smuggling bid.
Ali Al Mugahwi, Director of Airport Operations Department at Dubai Customs said the Asian passenger, implicated in the first seizure, was held when he stepped into the Customs inspection area. Customs inspectors suspected the passenger when he anxiously denied having anything to declare, and showed signs of worry while talking to the officer.
On searching the passenger’s baggage, a number of entry permits issued from some Asian countries were found. These visas later turned out to be fabricated, just like some other fake documents found in possession of the man who was supposed to deliver the documents to other people here in the UAE against some money.
In a separate incident another passenger was apprehended with three African passports which later turned out to be fake.
The suspect was hiding the forged passports inside a book in his belongings, but the inspectors detected them through a sophisticated screening machine due to an abnormal thickness in the book.