After ‘fake’ guns, blank cartridge haul at airport

Days after seizing 31 replicas of guns, customs officials at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) a huge quantity of blank cartridges from a passenger, who claimed to be a sportsperson.

Days after seizing 31 replicas of guns, customs officials at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) a huge quantity of blank cartridges from a passenger, who claimed to be a sportsperson.

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Probing a bigger conspiracy, customs officials have detained the man and sent the cartridges for testing. “The passenger coming from Germany started behaving suspiciously as soon as he came near the green channel. He waited at the green channel and as he crossed, we stopped him. A physical search of his check-in baggage was conducted and 5,000 blank cartridges were recovered,” said a source, requesting anonymity.

The passenger claimed he was a sportsperson and supplied these cartridges for sports activities and sometimes for movie shooting. But customs officials suspect a link with the pistols they seized last week. “These cartridges can be used with some modification. Even the pistols we had seized were capable of being used as genuine pistols. We are trying to find the link between the two,” the source added.

The value of the seized cartridges could not be ascertained and they had been sent to the forensic lab. Most of the seized cartridges are of .9mm bore. “Even the pistols we had seized were replicas of .9mm pistols. The passenger had bought these cartridges from Germany, where they are available easily,” he added. Both guns and cartridges have been sent to the laboratory and if tests confirm that the guns can be used as firearm, the passengers will be handed over to the police.

According to officials, the guns were in different packets and looked exactly like 9mm pistols. “They are of different sizes and are probably dummy guns,” he said.