Police arrest teenagers with $9.7m, €664,100 at Lagos airport

The Airport Command of the Nigerian Police Force has arrested two teenagers with $9,734,225 and €664,100 at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

The 18-year-old teenagers, identified as Abdul Bashir and Rabiu Bashir, said to be brothers, were arrested at the old domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport at about 6.30 pm on Thursday, shortly after arriving with the huge sum of money aboard an Arik Air flight from Kano.

According to security and airline sources, the money was packed in four travelling bags, which the suspects checked in as hand luggage.

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A security source said the police worked on a tip-off by an airline ground employee. Unconfirmed reports said the two young men did not declare the content of the bag before they boarded the plane in Kano.

It was learnt that the suspects, who claimed they were operators of a Bureau de Change outlet, were given the money by their customers.

A police source quoted the suspects as saying that they were in Lagos to sell the foreign currencies because the exchange rates were usually higher in Lagos.

The case had been handed over to the Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department of the Nigerian Police Force, Abuja for further investigation, according to a police source.

The Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, Mr. Moses Onireti, told SATURDAY PUNCH that he was in a meeting when a call was put through his telephone line for reaction.

When our correspondent called the police commissioner around 8.20 pm for the second time on the incident, he said, “call back.”

In 2010, an official in one of the commercial banks claimed she lost an undisclosed amount in foreign currency between Lagos and Abuja, which she said she checked in on an Arik flight.

It was lost in transit between Lagos and Abuja.