Some €22,000 were discovered by Customs officials stationed at the Airport on Friday. 

In a statement, Customs said the discovery had occurred during a coordinated search in the departure lounge by the Department’s Anti-Money Laundering Team and the Canine Unit.

The officials were screening passengers when Sophie, the Customs sniffer dog, indicated that a particular passenger might be carrying large amounts of cash. Following a personal search of the passenger, the amount of €16,100 was detected.

A thorough search on his hand luggage was then conducted with another €1,365 being discovered. Then, his two already checked-in personal pieces of luggage were off-loaded from the aircraft and a further €4,950 were discovered.

The total amount of undeclared cash amounted to €22,415.

The passenger was handed over to Police Anti-Money Laundering Unit for further investigations.

He is expected to be arraigned in court on Saturday.

Sophie's find comes just three weeks after her canine companion at Customs, Peter the sniffer dog, found €26,000 concealed on a passenger.

Last year, the Customs department had a record-breaking year in undeclared cash cases as they strengthened their efforts in this area.

Cash over the sum of €10,000 needs to be declared to Customs when arriving or departing the country.

Customs put a cork in dodgy wine imports

Meanwhile, during a routine market surveillance exercise, Customs Officials from the Enforcement Unit also seized 520 bottles of wine, without an excise duty stamp on them, from a restaurant in Paceville.

An investigation by the Department’s Excise Directorate into past imports by the same restaurant uncovered thousands of other wine bottles that were placed on the market without the appropriate taxes having been paid.