Dolores Aveiro, the mother of Real Madrid
star Cristiano Ronaldo, was stopped at Madrid’s Barajas Airport last
month and caught carrying an illegally large amount of cash as she
prepared to fly out of the country, the newspaper El Mundo reported.
According to The Telegraph,
60-year-old Aveiro, who spends long periods of time with her
multimillionaire footballer son in his luxury mansion outside Madrid,
was held by border police at Barajas after it was found that she had
€55,000 (£40,000) in her hand luggage. Rules against money laundering
state that the maximum travellers are permitted to take out of Spain
without declaring the transfer is €10,000.
Aveiro had not filled out a declaration
form and, according to the Spanish daily, was held by civil guard agents
at the airport for a few minutes while the excess amount of cash was
confiscated. She was then allowed to fly to Portugal with €10,000 in her
handbag.
Aveiro
will now be fined at least €600 for the attempt to illegally export
cash. By paying the fine, she will be able to collect the confiscated
€45,000.
The celebrity pages in Spanish newspapers
have in the past week been showing photographs of Ronaldo relaxing on
board a yacht owned by British retail tycoon Sir Philip Green. Having
recently separated from the Russian model Irina Shayk, Ronaldo has
chosen to start his summer holidays in the company of friends such as
Miguel Paixao, an old comrade from Sporting Lisbon’s junior ranks.
According to Portuguese newspaper Correio
de Manhã, Ronaldo and Shayk’s relationship was damaged beyond repair
last Christmas when they rowed over the player’s mother.
The couple were holidaying in Dubai, but
the footballer wanted to travel to his home island of Madeira to
surprise Aveiro on her 60th birthday on 31 December.
THE PUNCH
