Bid to smuggle Rs 8 cr worth foreign cigarettes foiled

Kochi: Foiling a smuggling bid, Customs officials here today seized Rs 8 crore worth foreign-made cigarettes from a container declared as a consignment of bedsheets at the port here.

Acting on a tip-off, officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence checked the container that had arrived from Dubai and found it contained foreign cigarettes worth Rs eight crore, DRI officials said.

The container was offloaded from a ship that arrived here on December 31 from Port of Jebel Ali, Dubai.

Sensing the customs’ move to check the container, an effort was made to take the container to Colombo, they said without elaborating.

A Chennai address given in the container was found to be fake, officials said.

DRI officials said they would conduct a thorough probe in coordination with other agencies to nad those behind the cigarette smuggling racket.

(PTI)