NEW DELHI: The Central district police on Monday arrested three persons for illegally importing cigarettes and cigars. The contraband approximately worth Rs 30 lakh contains 16,190 packets of illegally smuggled imported cigarettes and 580 packets of cigars.
The accused have been identified as Mohammed Danish, Shoaib Riyaz and Rajesh Kumar. As per Delhi Police, these tobacco products were being illegally brought to India via Cambodia. In a detailed operation, the police on June 26 had received information that some persons involved in smuggling of imported cigarettes and cigars are staying near the IP estate police station. The persons were also reported of having possession of cartons worth of tobacco products illegally.
A team under the supervision of SI Sandeep Godara and consisting of SI Pardeep, ASI Kanhiya Lal, ASI Yoginder Giri, HC Sunil, and HC Dalbir was constituted under the overall supervision of ACP Yogesh Malhotra.
The arrested trio earlier used to smuggle tobacco products via Dubai in the UAE but due to heavy restrictions on the route they ahd ro reroute the smuggling operation via Cambodia, it was found after police interrogation. Police said that further investigation is being done to ascertain the magnitude of the offence and identify others involved in the racket.