A total of €25,000 in undeclared cash were discovered on a passenger as he was leaving Malta by Customs officials from the department’s anti-money laundering team.

Customs said the Libyan passenger was boarding a flight to Istanbul when the gate was about to close.

When asked by officials whether he was carrying any undeclared cash, the passenger said he was and that this was in his checked-in luggage.

The officials retrieved the luggage, which was already stored on the aircraft and, following a search, €25,555 were elevated.

A total of €10,000 were returned to the passenger and the rest seized in line with EU and national law, which aims to tackle the movement of cash deriving from illicit trade.

Millions of euros in undeclared cash are seized in Europe every year, most of which en route to criminal organisations.

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