Airport Customs officers stopped a woman passenger for a routine check -- and found $40,000 hidden in a duffel bag.

The cash, in rolled up US bills, was found by officers who asked the woman to open her luggage minutes after she came off a flight from Atlanta.

The 29-year-old American, who has not been named, was arrested by Customs and handed over to Police.

It is understood the woman has been given Police bail while inquiries continue.

And news of the find on October 21 has only just been revealed, one week after another woman tried to smuggle $40,000 out of the country.

US Army Reserve Andrea Dottin, 26, was given a 12-month conditional discharge by magistrates after pleading guilty to trying to export the cash when she was searched at the airport on December 8.

She also admitted hiding the $43,500 under a false bottom in a duffel bag.

Brenda Raynor, Deputy Collector of Customs at Bermuda Airport, said the separate finds were "unusual''.

She added: "We haven't really seized anything out of the ordinary recently.

There have simply been regular concealments.

"But we did find the $40,000 cash on a 29-year-old woman who came off Delta flight 162 from Atlanta on October 21.

"It was in 400 $100 bills, which were hidden in a duffel bag.

"US Customs also found something similar when they stopped the second woman earlier this month.'' Magistrate Edward King, sentencing Dottin, said there was no proof the cash was related to anything illegal but he ordered it to be surrendered to the crown.

Meanwhile, Acting Collector of Customs Norma Smith said all searches were being stepped up as more and more people were arriving in Bermuda for Christmas.

And she warned some visitors would have to expect their wrapped Christmas presents to be opened as a precaution.

Ms Smith said: "Overall, we are very busy at this time of year with people going away on vacation or shopping sprees and college students returning to the Island.

"We do get the occasional instance of someone concealing something inside a wrapped present.

"They are normally false declarations and sometimes they're last minute gifts which people have forgotten about, so it can be quite innocent.

"But we have to be mindful that some may be more sinister and that's why it's up to our Customs officers to use their own discretion.

"We may have a family visiting relatives on the Island and they may be stocked up with Christmas presents.

"It's a matter for individual officers to decide whether or not those gifts should be opened.

"But if they are opened, they are done so as carefully as possible.

"We are not there to wreck people's packages although we would like visitors to know it is possible they may occasionally have to be opened.''