In one of the largest seizures of its kind, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials have seized ₹8 crore worth of smuggled foreign-made cigarettes from a ship at the International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) here.
About 27,000 cartons of four brands of cigarettes, including Dunhill, had been concealed in a container which claimed to contain blankets and bed-sheets.
The ship had arrived from Jabel Ali seaport in the UAE. Apparently, the contraband was to be unloaded at the Krishnapattanam port in Andhra Pradesh. The consignee was Winston Trading, Chennai.
Apprehending investigators’ raid at the ICTT, the ship had tried to skip Kochi and head for Colombo, but the DRI forced it to dock at ICTT on Thursday. In a similar raid on a tip-off, officials had found a huge cache of smuggled cigarettes at Krishnapattanam too.
It is said smuggling of international cigarette brands into India has been on the rise for some time. Because of the high duties and taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products in India, smuggling is very lucrative. Cigarette smuggling is said to be relatively easy, faced little competition and turned in huge profit margins for the smugglers.