70 lakh smuggled foreign-brand cigarettes worth ₹14 crore seized from Navi Mumbai port

Officers from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai zone, intercepted a container at Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai on Friday and seized 70.39 lakh smuggled

Officers from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai zone, intercepted a container at Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai on Friday and seized 70.39 lakh smuggled foreign-brand cigarettes valued at ₹14 crore in illicit international markets.

The contraband was declared as aluminium powder and hidden under aluminium scrap of motor vehicle engine parts.

An Uttar Pradesh (UP)-based syndicate is suspected to be behind the smuggling. The consignment was to be transported to UP’s Moradabad city. The officers are on the lookout for the accused who are a part of the racket.

Recently, DRI officers had received inputs about a syndicate from UP that was involved in the smuggling of cigarettes from Dubai to India. Based on intelligence inputs, the officers learnt that a live consignment, declaring the contraband as aluminium powder, will be imported by the syndicate through Nhava Sheva port in a container. Based on the inputs, the container was seized under the Customs Act, 1962, said DRI.

“The cigarettes were found concealed cleverly under the aluminium scrap of motor vehicle engine parts and other waste,” a statement from DRI read.

An officer said, “Foreign-brand cigarettes are in high demand in party circuits at metro cities. The cigarettes had to be taken to New Delhi from UP. As there is strict vigilance at the Tughlakabad port (in Delhi), the syndicate had planned to store the consignment at a facility in Moradabad before transporting it to Delhi via road. The consignment had to be transported from Navi Mumbai to UP by the railways’ freight service.”

This is the third major consignment of foreign cigarettes seized from the Nhava Sheva port by DRI Mumbai during the Covid-19 pandemic period.