When officials grew suspicious over the woman from the first x-ray screening, security personnel deployed from Metropolitan Police Airport Security Office nabbed Yanhui Hong from departure hand baggage checking area.Yanhui, who holds passport number E48525115, was about to board a Sichuan Airlines 3U 8720 flight to Chengdu of China at around 10:15 am, according to DIG Bijaya Lal Kayastha, chief of Metropolitan Police Airport Security Office, Gauchar.
Initially the security personnel couldn't find the contraband, DIG Kayastha further adding said, but after repeated search, the illegal currencies were found concealed in the hollow area of the pipe connected to the handle of the luggage.
DIG Kayastha said the currencies were bundled inside carbon paper bags and hidden skillfully.
Yanhui was originally from the eastern Chinese coastal province of Zhejiang and travelled to Nepal on a business visa on May 22. She has also claimed that she is a rudraksha (ultrasum beads) trader and she had exchanged her income into US dollars. However preliminary investigation by police shows that there was no evidence to support her claim as rudraksha trader.
Last March, police had arrested a 50-year-old woman in possession of USD 113,250 and 5,151 yuan from the same route while she was trying to smuggle the currencies to China. In another case, police had arrested an Indian man with USD 178,000 while trying to smuggle the currency to Hong Kong.
Police said the number of Chinese nationals using air routes for the illegal activities have increased in the recent years. Although fewer Chinese tourists were visiting Nepal after the earthquake, Yanhui came to Nepal with ulterior motive, police said. She had visited Nepal on 14 April for the first time but had stayed for a short time.
Police will send her to the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), Hariharbhawan, Lalitpur, for further investigations, along with the seized currencies.
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