Hyderabad: Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Saturday raided an inland container depot (ICD) in Ranga Reddy district and seized foreign cigarettes, valued at Rs 6.33 crore, which were smuggled into the country. Acting on a tip-off that smugglers are getting cigarettes from Dubai through cargo, the sleuths raided a depot at Thimmapur.
“On a container from the UAE we found 176 packages of Mond cigarettes. The super slim cigarettes were of different flavours (gum; gum mint; green apple; menthol and paan) and Benson & Hedges super filter cigarettes from London,” Mr M.K. Singh, DRI additional director-general, said.
As many as 45.3 lakh foreign cigarettes were recovered. Of which, 15 lakh cigarettes were of Benson & Hedges and 30.3 lakh cigarettes were of Mond brand. To conceal the cigarettes, self-adhesive tapes were pla-ced on the front side of the container, he added. Total value of the seized cigarettes is Rs 6.33 crore. Self-adhesive tapes, valued at Rs 2.75 lakh, were used to conceal the cigarettes.Local market sources said that the im-ported cigarettes are sold at major pan shops for about Rs 300 and Rs 500 a packet. The DRI Hyderabad unit said that the cigarette is smuggled to avoid the customs duty on imported goods.
