Four booked for smuggling bid

In a high voltage drama that ensued at Mumbai International Airport on Friday night, the customs officials booked four Chennai-based smugglers who abandoned their luggage at the conveyor belt sensing that they were being watched.

Officials said that the quartet had bought mobiles, professional cameras and cigarettes from Singapore and to hoodwink the customs who keep flights from Singapore under watch, went to Sri Lanka and then took a flight from there. While they had stuffed the valuables in the checked in baggage, they had also hidden nine mobiles each in their pockets.

The four smugglers have been identified as Mohammed Khalifa Tulla, Mohammed Imran, Afzal Khan and Sadiq Baccha.

“In Mumbai they were waiting for their luggage to come on the conveyor belt. They sensed that we were watching them and so they did not collect their luggage and they started running and tried to pass through the green channel when we apprehended them,” said a senior customs official.

When the team headed by customs superintendent Sameer Wankhede asked them about their luggage, they said they did not have any to claim.

“We then asked for their boarding pass and were shocked to see that each of them had checked in five big bags from Sri Lanka. They then admitted of abandoning the luggage. We took them to the conveyor belts again and checked their luggage,” said an officer.

The officials seized 100 smart phones and 13 professional cameras from one passenger while from the other three they seized 760 cartons of imported cigarettes. The total value of the seized goods are estimated to be over Rs. 3 million. “We keep a vigil on passengers coming from certain countries including Singapore as smugglers often bring in goods at cheaper rates from there and try to sneak them into the country by evading the duty. These people knew about this and so they went to Sri Lanka first,” the officer said.

Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle