Dubai arrests three for fake iris-scan smuggling

EYE TEST: Dubai International Airport arrested over 4,000 people who failed the iris scan test in the first six months of 2008. (Getty Images)

Dubai airport officials have arrested three people on suspicion of smuggling fake-iris scans, the official news agency WAM reported on Monday.

"The Naturalisation and Residency Department in Dubai (DNRD) has referred three people - two Russians and a Moldovan - to Dubai International Airport police, on suspicion of smuggling forged eye biometrics recognition stamps" with intent to facilitate the entry to the UAE of previously-banned individuals, it said.

A team of DNRD officers, consisting of preventive security staff and airports investigation department personnel, succeeded in arresting a 17-years-old Russian at Dubai airport, after he surrendered 72 fake eye-scans, it said.

Another suspect, a 34-year-old Russian, the intended recipient of the bag containing the fake stamps, was arrested as part of the same operation, it said.

A third suspect, a 21-year-old Moldovan woman, was arrested at the airport with a laptop and five ink pads and later she admitted that she had intended to deliver them to the first suspect, it added.

The report said that number of individuals arrested through the Iris Scan System at the airport amounted to 1,325 in 2006, 3,626 in 2007 and 4,382 in the first half of 2008, according to Major-General Mohammed Ahmed Al-Marri, DNRD director.

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