TREASURY SEIZES POUNDS 3M AFTER DRUGS CASH CLAIM

A NIgerian businessman who tried to fly pounds 3 million into Britain
in pounds 50 notes lost the cash yesterday after a court accepted
Customs' claim that it was drug money.

The Treasury took possession of the cash, which was stuffed into three
suitcases, under the 1994 Drug Trafficking Act. The seizure is the
biggest since the Act was introduced.

It followed a search of luggage belonging to Alhaji Daura when he
landed at Heathrow in a private jet last year. The luggage was
searched because Customs officers were targeting Nigerians, as the
country is used as a transit point for cocaine and heroin. Mr Daura
said the cash had been obtained from a change bureau in Lagos and was
intended for a rice shipment between Thailand and Nigeria.

Customs officers explained the hearing was a civil case. Mr Daura was
not convicted of a criminal offence.

Magistrates decided on the balance of probabilities that the cash came
from drugs trafficking.