Cash smuggling along Bengaluru-Bangkok route on the rise

There has been a marked uptick in attempts to smuggle currency notes from Bengaluru to Bangkok, with large sums of money in foreign currency being seized from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

According to a report by The Times of India, nine arrests were made at KIA from February 1 to April 21, in relation with attempted currency smuggling and a total of Rs 3.4 crore in foreign currency was seized in the same period.

This spike comes at a time when tourism is picking up across the world, especially to Thailand, as fears surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic recede.

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Coinciding with this spike, the demand for foreign curriencies—particularly US dollars, British pounds, and euros—has gone up, creating an opportunity for currency smugglers.

"Local gangs dealing in hawala saw tremendous business opportunity with a sudden resurgence in Bangkok-bound tourism post pandemic, and started sourcing foreign currency from different partys of the country, with Bengaluru emerging as one of the key ports for currency smuggling," an official in the Bengaluru unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) was quoted as saying by TOI.

Given the number of arrests made in recent months, investigators reportedly suspect that hawala gangs in Bengaluru are hand-picking carries to fly currency notes out of Bengaluru after striking deals with gangs based in Thailand.

"These currency smugglers are often backed by hawala dealers," TOI quoted a customs official as saying.