It has been an exciting week for Jet Airways. On January 1, two Jet Airways pilots got into a fight, leading to both of the pilots eventually leaving the cockpit. Both pilots, including Jet Airways’ most senior 777 captain, got fired.
Now there’s a story of a Jet Airways flight attendant who tried to smuggle about 500,000USD onto a flight from Delhi to Hong Kong that she was working on January 8, 2018. There’s even footage of the incident!
The 25 year old flight attendant mostly had 100USD bills, all of which were wrapped in aluminum foil, so that it would be tougher for screeners to detect the money. Unfortunately for her, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) caught her before departure. Jet Airways has confirmed that the flight attendant was arrested, and I would guess that she’ll be terminated.
According to BBC:
The DRI confirmed to the BBC that they had “identified the handler who was co-ordinating this operation”, which they said had been going on for the past six months.
The PTI news agency quoted an official saying the alleged handler “would collect money from some bullion dealers in Delhi and send it via some air hostess to select foreign destinations”.
“The money was being used for purchasing gold abroad. The gold would then be sent to India illegally,” the official said.
Here’s the video of the flight attendant getting her bag searched:
This is pretty bad, though certainly not the worst flight attendant smuggling story we’ve seen. In 2016 a JetBlue off duty flight attendant (who was a former Jamaican beauty queen) was caught with about 70 pounds of cocaine, worth about two million dollars. When her bag was subjected to a random screening she took off her designer shoes and ran, and got away. She even managed to board a flight the next day. Eventually she turned herself in, and she now faces 10+ years in jail.
(Featured image courtesy of Fabio)
Back in my Bolivian Marching Powder days I got stopped w/ 100 grand in ORD to MIA. I snapped back at them and said."I'm buying a race horse" My traveling companion bailed but I went onto Mia unabated.
This is where you can see the difference between Indian police officers and FBI. FBI would have quietly let the air hostess carry the money so they could catch the big rats instead of catching the small rat who will spend 10 years in jail while the handlers find another air hostess to continue their business.
@Charles S
I was referring to departures from the United States where immigration checks occur by the airline and not ICE. TSA just check your ID and nothing else. It's actually unusual since travellers have to clear immigration even during departures in most countries.
@Potato, yup it’s true. I work in Casino marketing and Asians, manly from the mainland, will flock in with huge bags of Rimowa suitcase luggage full of six figure amounts
@Reek: The obvious difficulty is however getting the money changed to cryptos and legitimise once they come out at the other end. It's not impossible but I doubt that anyone thinking they could get through with wrapping money in foil is likely unable to make it stick. You'll have the IRS on your back quicker than you can say "cryptocurrency".
BTW: If you have to avoid the banking system of a country, putting cash...
@Reek: The obvious difficulty is however getting the money changed to cryptos and legitimise once they come out at the other end. It's not impossible but I doubt that anyone thinking they could get through with wrapping money in foil is likely unable to make it stick. You'll have the IRS on your back quicker than you can say "cryptocurrency".
BTW: If you have to avoid the banking system of a country, putting cash into a bag and travelling with it out of it to launder it somewhere else is still quite popular.
I thought Flight Attendents had to speak English?
@Sean M: DITTO
nothing new
this was why UA dropped the their DEL/HKG segment and lost their "Around the World" status.
$$$
@Emily and Cedric you do realize that the TSA has nothing to do with incoming international flights right? It would be ICE officers who are actual federal law enforcement officers.
At what part of the screening process (I assume her carry on had to go through the x-ray scanner) did foil wrapped rectangular blocks not set off someone’s attention? (Of course there could have been some “assistance” in this area also....)
Imagine a darker skinned person walking through security in the US with a bag full of foil wrapped blocks....!!! Could have ended much much worse for her...
She should have claimed she is allergic to search (and video recording too). That would have prevented everything ;)
The smart money launderers have already moved to Cryptos, Money Laundering in cash is so Deja Vu.
The TSA can’t detect weapons, nevermind cash...
Should have smuggled via the US - it's not like the TSA can actually detect any contrabands and let's not even discuss the dismal police presence in US airports.
What prompted the search since they were on the plane? What suspicion was there to go looking? And why did they need to unwrap ALL of the cash?
@potato , one mile at a time
Small amounts is the secret.
Put IT on Youtube, obviously.
Quite bizarre to film this and put in on Youtube...
Oh india!
Airline crew all over the world have been smuggling cash (and other items) since time immemorial. The usual cut for the crew member is between 1-3% of the value of the items smuggled depending on the experience of the smuggler and the level of risk involved (drugs pay higher obviously).
In India, black money is a big problem and the government has been coming down hard on them, the last few years. Wiring is not easy anymore. You will have to provide all kinds of documentation to wire anything more than $300 at a time
Should have just wired it like real money launderers