The customs staff of Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar on Sunday intercepted 10 bags containing 2,48,800 pieces (1244 cartons- each containing 10 packets of super slim cigarettes of ESSE Golden Leaf brand.
The cigarettes were brought to India from Dubai by Spice Jet SG 56 flight on the morning of March 5. The market valuation of the goods is approximately Rs 28 lakhs. The cigarettes were seized under the Customs Act, of 1962. The bags were with the airline staff and one bag was opened after some suspicious images were found on scanning. The bag contained the above-mentioned super slim imported cigarettes. Further investigation is underway.
Following the discovery of the cigarette packets, the airline staff informed that the two passengers travelled by the same flight the previous day on March 4 from Dubai but these bags didn’t arrive with them.
Earlier in January, Almost 2,000 undeclared cigarette cartons were seized by Customs Officers in a courier cell in Mumbai on Thursday. These cartons contained almost 4 lakh cigarette sticks worth Rs 30 lakh, as reported by the news agency ANI. The officers recovered these cartons mixed with the shipments that had to be exported to London, England. Recently the Anti-Narcotics Cell of Maharashtra police arrested three peddlers and seized 90 kilograms of marijuana from their possession worth Rs 17 lakh.