Hardly two days after it foiled an attempt to smuggle foreign cigarettes worth Rs.2.20 crore through the Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment terminal, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on Thursday arrested an accused in the case.
Ansar, the accused, was a transport agent at the island. According to DRI sleuths, he is the brother of a customs house agent in Kochi.
The prime accused in the case is still at large, and his whereabouts are unknown. They had plotted the smuggling plan by keeping the Kerala-based importing firm in the dark, DRI sources said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The accused has reportedly confessed to his involvement in the smuggling of cigarettes worth Rs.34 lakh from Kochi to Bangalore. However, the attempt was foiled by DRI sleuths in Karnataka. DRI officials on Tuesday had foiled an attempted smuggling and recovered 6,560 cartons of Gudang Garam cigarettes, which were concealed inside thick layers of gypsum boards brought from the Dubai Port.