A joint team of Delhi Police and income tax department officials raided a hotel in national capital's Karol Bagh area and caught five men with scrapped banknotes worth over 3 crore rupees yesterday night. Joint commissioner of police (crime branch)Ravindra Yadav said, the raid was conducted at Hotel Taksh Inn at Chenna Market in Karol Bagh based on a tip-off. The seized money 3.5 crore rupees belonged to some Mumbai-based Hawala operators. The five have been identified as Ansari Abuzar, Fazal Khan, Ansari Affan, Ladu Ram, and Mahavir Singh.<br/> <br/>Police said, except Ram and Mahavir, who are from Rajasthan, the other three belong to Mumbai. During the interrogation, the five men said, they were carriers working for hawala operators based in Delhi, Mumbai and other big cities. They claimed that they are specialists in the packaging banknotes. These packaging specialists pack banknotes in such a manner that the packets do not get detected at scanning machines at airports. They use special tapes and wires that easily pass through X-ray machines undetected.<br/> <br/>Income tax officials are analysing the mobile phone details of the five men and have found phone numbers of other hawala operators. IT officials were questioning them to establish the source of the money and understand their modus operandi. In the previous raid at a law firm office in south Delhi's Greater Kailash, officials recovered over 13.5 rupees crore, both in old and new banknotes that were stashed in almirahs and cupboards in two rooms.