THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A joint squad of Excise and Commercial Tax Department arrested a Ghana national and seized 400 thousand fake British pounds worth around `3 crore from a private bus at Amaravila check-post on Sunday. Ron Edison, 36, has been handed over to the Parassala police for further interrogation. The police suspect he is a member of an international fake lottery racket.
According to Excise sleuths, he was nabbed from a Thivuananthapuram-bound private bus from Bengaluru around 8.50 am. The bus was checked as part of the routine inspection. The bag, found under Rob’s seat, was partitioned using a metal box. The sleuths found 10 bundles of British pound currency notes, blank papers and a chemical used for colouring the blank notes inside the box.
Upon interrogation, Rob said he was on his way to hand over the money to his ‘boss’ in Thiruvananthapuram. However, he did not divulge any information about him.
“We handed him over to the police, who are trying to find his whereabouts,” said an Excise officer.
He is likely to be produced before the magistrate at Neyyattinkara on Monday. Recently, the inspection at the check-post was intensified following a spurt in smuggling of goods as well as narcotics through private and public transport buses.