Customs Intercepts Attempt to Smuggle Currency from Ukraine to Canada

Ukrainian customs officials halted an attempt to illegally export over 1.67 million hryvnias to Canada.
An international postal shipment heading to Canada immediately raised suspicions among customs officers. The declaration contained a confusing entry: «sample/18/1.5/17 U.S. dollars».
During the customs inspection, the true contents of the package were revealed.
Inside were metal bowls, a medical product, and several wrappers from chocolate items. However, the real «treasure» was hidden within them — 35,100 U.S. dollars and 7,350 Canadian dollars. At the NBU exchange rate on the day of shipment, this amounts to 1,675,925 hryvnias.
This is one of the largest sums found in international postal shipments in recent times.
According to Article 18 of the Universal Postal Convention, it is prohibited to include coins, banknotes, and other valuables in international postal shipments without declared value unless permitted by the national laws of the sending and receiving countries.
Thus, the Kyiv customs authority drafted a protocol for breaching customs regulations under Article 473 of the Customs Code of Ukraine — the shipment of goods prohibited for mailing under Ukrainian law and the acts of the Universal Postal Union. The funds were seized pending a court decision.