Economics
Trump’s Iran Sanctions Trigger a Booming Cash Smuggling Business
- Nearly $5 million is smuggled daily across Afghan-Iran border
- Currency traders transport cash-stuffed suitcases in taxis
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For traders in Afghanistan’s main currency exchange, U.S. sanctions against Tehran have created the ultimate arbitrage play -- one that involves frequent trips to neighboring Iran with smuggled cash.
At the bustling, three-story Sarai Shahzada market in Kabul, one trader sitting in a booth piled high with grimy banknotes explained how he and others use taxis to bring suitcases full of U.S. currency into Iran through Afghanistan’s remote Islam Qala border crossing. Each month he transfers about $220,000 in two or three trips, he said, speaking on condition his name not be used.