Massive haul of imported cigarettes in Kovai; 7 held

A senior customs official said that they had seized 4.68 lakh cigarettes packed in 2,340 cartons. The seven passengers from Chennai, Madurai and Kerala flew from Chennai to Singapore and in the return direction landed in Coimbatore by the SilkAir service at 10.20 pm on Wednesday. 

“We searched them based on a tip-off from Singapore, that they were smuggling cigarettes into India via Coimbatore,” a customs official told DTNext.

According to the official, the informer from Singapore reportedly overheard the talking about their plans and that they were forced to fly to Coimbatore as they could not go to other airports which were their previous destinations in the return direction, due to specific reasons. “Cigarette cartons were concealed in their suitcases and hand luggage within the permitted limit,” the official added.

However, their baggage was abnormally big and on checking it the police found the cigarettes. “The cigarettes were Korean brands. Based on the valuation rules, we have estimated each cigarette at Rs 8, though it is much less than the market value,” the official added. 

All seven of them were booked under the Customs Act. Since the fine amount, duty and equal penalty for the smuggled items were more than Rs 1.12 crore they paid their compounded personal penalty of Rs 1 lakh and left without the cigarettes. Customs personnel confiscated the cigarettes and said that they would be sold as per the Customs norms. This is one of the biggest haul of smuggled cigarettes at the Coimbatore International Airport in recent times. 

From last Saturday, this is the third major seizure of smuggled goods at the Coimbatore Airport. On Saturday and Monday sleuths from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized smuggled gold weighing more than 2.5 kg from two passengers from Sharjah who arrived here by an Air Arabia service.