Banknotes Mystery At London Airport
(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, January 23. British detectives are trying to solve the mystery of Nigerian banknotes with a face value of £230,000 found at London Airport yesterday.
The money, virtually worthless now that Nigeria has issued new banknotes, was discovered in seven suitcases left at the airport by a passenger travelling from Paris to Accra, in Ghana, via London. One of the suitcases broke open while it was being transferred from one aircraft to another.
The money was seized by airport police and handed over to Scotland Yard. The banknotes ceased to be legal tender from midnight last night, after a Nigerian decision to issue new ones in a bid to stop secessionist Biafra from buying arms abroad. The incident is the latest in a series involving mystery shipments <rf Nigerian currency.
An aircraft was held under guard yesterday at Lome, Togo, after the discovery of Nigerian banknotes on board worth £7m.
On January 15, Switzerland announced that it had turned away a Rhodesian-registered aircraft carrying Nigerian motes, and the next day cus-
toms officials at Beirut said 10 tons of the notes were aboard a plane which landed there.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 13
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194Banknotes Mystery At London Airport Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 13
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