The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested three people on Saturday, including the managing director of a shipping company, in connection with the illegal import of foreign brand filtered cigarettes worth around Rs 17 crore, according to an agency official.
The Ahmedabad zonal unit of DRI had on April 1 seized a container at Mundra port in Gujarat’s Kutch district with 84 lakh sticks of smuggled foreign brand filtered cigarettes named ‘BBM pride filter kings’, it said in a statement.
The consignment of cigarettes worth Rs 16.8 crore was imported from the United Arab Emirates in a container declared as hotel supplies, bed sheets and pillow covers, and was seized under the Customs Act, 1962, said the release.
Based on an inquiry done so far in this connection, it arrested three persons on Friday, comprising the managing director of a shipping company in Gandhidham in Kutch district, a partner of a Dubai-based container line company and their associate from Bengaluru, the DRI statement informed.
“During investigation, it is primarily revealed that in the arrival manifest, the subject consignment was declared for discharge at Mundra for further transshipment to a fictitious consignee in UK and the shipping agent had issued parallel documents to bring the said consignment in India,” stated the DRI release.
According to the DRI, an active syndicate is involved in the smuggling of cigarettes, which have been declared as notified goods to combat smuggling. It was also stated that further investigation is underway.