12 lakh contraband cigarettes seized.

JAIPUR: A team of customs officials on Wednesday evening seized 460 cartons of contraband Indonesian cigarettes worth Rs 11.69 lakh from the possession of five passengers who arrived here from Dubai by Air India's Jaipur-bound flight.

Acting on a tip off, the sleuths of customs scanned the baggage of five passengers and found the Gudan Gram, an Indonesian cigarette having clove flavour. After the suspicion, the baggage of the passengers were checked through X-ray machine when all of them shown nervous signs.

"All the five passengers are from Delhi and it appears that they took Jaipur as a soft target to smuggle this haul of 460 cartons. Likewise, it was their first attempt to bring the contraband cigarettes to the city," said a senior officer of customs on the condition of anonymity.

Officials said, they had a specific tip off on these passengers and while they landed in the city on Wednesday afternoon, they were interrogated and their baggage were checked. "There is a lot of paper work needed in these things which continued till late on Wednesday evening. After completing various formalities the cartons were seized," he said.

Sleuths said that people bring these cigarettes to save the import duty and if these passengers had got scot-free with the cigarettes of nearly Rs 11.69 lakh they would have sold the stuff and have earned a 100% profit out of it.

Dubai continues to be the source for cigarette smuggling to India. Officials said that highest number of foreign cigarette seizure was seen in Mumbai ports and Delhi airport.

On the other hand, the officials confirmed that these passengers had earlier booked tickets for Delhi. However, due to extra vigil at the Delhi airport, they opted for Jaipur.

Sleuths further said that it was a big seizure as contraband cigarettes affect the revenue of Centre and state governments.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com