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A resident of Paris was nabbed trying to smuggle €552,000 into Israel inside a cotton candy machine. The suspect, Akiva Jardon, 19, was arraigned in the Jerusalem Magistrate Court on Wednesday, 10 Shevat. The request to remand the suspect came from customs and value added tax agents who apprehended him in Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The suspect landed in Israel on Tuesday on a flight from Paris.

He was questioned by police during the waiting period and then sent to the Green Line. There he was requested to place his bag on the x-ray, where an envelope containing €7,000 was discovered.

This led to a more rigid exam of his bags which contained an electric fireplace and cotton candy machine.

The items were disassembled by customs agents and they found cash, euros in denominations of 50, 100, 200 and 500, which according to the report were carefully hidden in the machines.

When the cash was collected and counted, the agents had found a total of €550,460, which according to the Bank of Israel closing exchange rate of Tuesday of NIS 1/€4.29 equals 2,361,473.00.

The 19-year-old visitor from Paris was taken into custody.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)