Customs thwart bid to smuggle foreign cigarettes worth 50L
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Based on intelligence, a team of customs officials checked the parcels at the foreign post office at Chennai airport on Monday and seized 10 carton boxes sent from Dubai. Each box, weighing about 25 kg, contained a mix of foreign brand and Indian brand cigarettes. In total, 2.3 lakh cigarette sticks worth 25 lakh were seized.
On Wednesday, customs sleuths also seized three carton boxes, each weighing 29 kg, that arrived from Malaysia.
Although the consignment was declared as cloth hangers and textiles, customs sleuths found 998 e-cigarettes worth 25 lakh hidden inside.
The contraband was seized under sections 110 and 111 of the Customs Act, the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act, and the COPTA Act. Although the parcels had different addresses for delivery. Officials said some of them were fake and others said the parcels were not meant for them. Officials suspect that the receivers deliberately provided fake addresses to claim the parcels at the post office in person.
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