A 23-year-old man in Cape Town has been sentenced to an effective two years behind bars for trying to smuggle a large amount of US dollars out of the country.

He was handed down the sentence in the Cape Town Regional Court. The more than 156 000 US dollars which are equivalent to R1.9 million have been forfeited to the state. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says Muhammad Zakariyya Sheik Aboo was arrested in May 2018 as he tried to board a flight to Dubai from Cape Town International Airport.

He had the dollars in envelopes in the luggage he booked in. The NPA says he didn’t have the required permission from the Treasury for the amount of money he had.