Author: adminficci

LUDHIANA: A team of the Ludhiana Customs Commissionerate deployed at the Chandigarh International Airport seized gold worth over Rs 10.28 crore from a Dubai-returned passenger on Friday.
Customs officials said that raids are being conducted at several places, including Khanna in Punjab as part of further investigation into the case.
Customs commissioner Vrindaba Gohil said, “On March 3, a Dubai-Chandigarh Indigo Flight No 6E56 landed at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport. The customs officers deployed at the airport had shortlisted a 30-year-old passenger based on analysis of Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) and intercepted him. The officers detected and recovered 18 bars of 1kg each of pure gold bearing marking “ETIHAD GOLD DUBAI UAE” having 995.0 purity.”
Gohil also added, “The contraband gold was packed in a tiny hand-held bag which the passenger cleverly thrusted into one of his checked-in bags after collecting them from the baggage conveyor belt.
The market value of the seized gold is Rs 10,28,16,000. The passenger was a first-time traveller to Dubai.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/gold-worth-rs-10-28-crore-seized-from-dubai-returned-passenger-at-chandigarh-airport/articleshow/98412495.cms?from=mdr

Two individuals were taken into custody, and the investigation was ongoing.
According to an official, a seizure of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth ₹48 lakh took place in Maharashtra’s Palghar district on Wednesday.
The Konkan flying squad of the Maharashtra excise department intercepted a tempo at Talasari, where it was discovered that the IMFL, meant only for sale in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, was being transported to Palghar district.
The tempo was stopped near Khanvel Udhva Road, and 400 boxes of liquor from various brands, hidden under bags of sawdust, were confiscated.
Two individuals were taken into custody, and the investigation was ongoing.
https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/palghar-illegal-liquor-worth-48-lakh-seized-by-excise-dept-two-held-watch

Police have seized around 20 tonnes of counterfeit goods in raids on shops masquerading as legitimate businesses.
Officers said the goods, seized from 12 units in Cheetham Hill and Strangeways in Manchester, are worth millions of pounds to criminal groups.
The items, including trainers and coats, are to be recycled and changed into usable items for the community.
The raid formed part of Operation Vulcan, which is targeting fake designer goods in the city.
Greater Manchester Police Sgt Daniel Cullum said work was under way to “seek out and arrest” the individuals who had been distributing and selling the items.
He added: “We have had amazing success in stamping out these counterfeit stores but there are a few units remaining that are still attempting to operate in the area.
“We will be targeting these premises imminently and as the shops start to disappear, we will be targeting those higher up the chain who for so long have felt above the law and out of reach.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-64784988

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized 101kg gold worth Rs 51 crore, foreign currency of Rs 74 lakh value and Rs 63 lakh in Indian currency in Operation ‘Golden Dawn’ spanning Mumbai, Pune and Patna and arrested 10 persons, including seven Sudanese nationals.
The gold, mostly in paste form, was smuggled through the Indo-Nepal border to Patna in Bihar and was to be reached by train or air to mainly Mumbai and other parts of the country. Gold smuggling has seen a surge due to the traditional high demand in the country coupled with rising prices and steep import duty on the yellow metal.
On Sunday, three Sudanese were intercepted while boarding a train to Mumbai from Patna station. Gold paste with gold of over 37kg in 40 packets were recovered from specially made cavities in the sleeveless jackets worn by them. DRI believes one of them is the handler coordinating the smuggling activity at the border and arranging for supply. This consignment was to be delivered to a person in Colaba.
On Monday, two Sudanese women were intercepted in Pune as they were travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai in a bus and over five and a half kg of gold in assorted forms were recovered from their hand bags. On the same day, two more Sudanese nationals travelling to Mumbai from Patna were stopped at a railway station in Mumbai and gold paste with 39kg gold in 40 packets were recovered.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/dri-seizes-101kg-gold-smuggled-from-nepal-to-mumbai/articleshow/98134435.cms

February 21, 2023 | Dimapur, Nagaland

Assam Rifles is committed to working with all central and state agencies to combat illegal trade and smuggling in the North-east. FICCI CASCADE lauds Assam Rifles’ successful interception of products such as illicit cigarettes, liquor, currency, contrabands and many more in the recent past in the Northeastern states. To engage and sensitize the officers on the subject of counterfeiting and smuggling, FICCI CASCADE organised a Capacity Building Programme for the officers of Assam Riffles on 21st February 2023 at Assam Rifles Training Centre & School, Dimapur, Nagaland.

Brigadier S K Sheoran, YSM, SM, Deputy Inspector General, Assam Rifles Training, Centre and School, Dimapur, Nagaland was the chief guest at the programme. Brigadier Sheoran stated that the government has given power to the Assam Rifles under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS), Act to keep a check on the ongoing increase in drug trafficking in the North-Eastern states. Drugs, cigarettes, arms and ammunition and betel nuts are few products which are frequently smuggled into our country. There is a need for stringent punishment and to inculcate a fear of law enforcement agencies and law and order to curtail the problem of illicit trade.

Brigadier Sheoran cited that the only way to stop smuggling at the border is to stay alert and have suspicious eye on everything coming in the country especially because of the porous and unfenced border India share with Myanmar, added Brigadier Sheoran. He apprised that smuggling and counterfeit trade hold back progress, impact health of the economy and create safety hazards for consumers. Therefore, significant steps should be taken against illicit traders to battle the menace of smuggling.

While giving an overview on socio-economic impact of counterfeiting and smuggling, Mr Deep Chand, Advisor, FICCI CASCADE and Former Special Commissioner of Police, New Delhi mentioned that Assam Rifles proactive vigilance in intercepting the movement of smuggled products is a definitive step towards putting the fear in the hearts of smugglers who deal in illicit trade activities. “The capacity building program is aimed to sensitize the officers of Assam Rifles on the gravity of the issue and amplify the need for a greater focus on combatting smuggling and related crimes at the border”, said Mr. Chand.

Mr. Avinash Sinha, Regional, Manager, Industry Affairs (East), ITC Ltd. accentuated that among the illicit & smuggled goods, cigarettes have emerged as one of the most lucrative products, witnessing the highest jump in the recent past, and it accounts for 1/3rd of the legal cigarette market in the country. It calls for heightened surveillance and stricter enforcement to curb the menace of illegal cigarettes in India added, Mr. Sinha.

Mr. Milind Palany, Senior Manager, Global Brand Protection, Southern Asia and ANZ, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health opined that in India smuggling, counterfeiting, tax evasion and illicit trade is impacting legitimate economic activity. It also deprives the government’s revenues for investment in vital public services, dislocating millions of legitimate jobs and causing irreversible damage to ecosystems and human lives. This is critical at a time when India is making strong progress to become a manufacturing hub for the world, supporting innovation in every sector and focusing on people-centric development models.

Ms. Shamin Marwah Anand, Legal Manager, Marico Limited talked about the consequences of counterfeits, which are considerable, and they affect industry, consumers, government and society. “Individual consumers purchasing counterfeit goods are denied the use of safe and genuine products, especially if they believe they are purchasing legitimate products. In addition to legitimate loss of sales, companies may suffer loss of reputation from poorly performing counterfeit product and that finally entities like government may suffer from loss of revenue, societies may suffer risks to public health and safety”, said Ms. Anand.

The programme witnessed an enthusiastic participation of more than 500 officers from across the north-eastern states.

GUWAHATI: The Government Railway Police (GRP) of Guwahati railway station recovered gold biscuits and 4.89 kg of opium from two trains on Tuesday and arrested two persons.
As per reports, during regular checking, a GRP team recovered four pieces of gold weighing about 1 kg from two persons from Tejas Express at Guwahati railway station.
Four pieces of gold weighing about 1 kg worth ₹58 lakh was recovered from the suspected smugglers.
The two accused have been identified to be hailing from Manipur and were travelling to Delhi.
Meanwhile, in a separate operation on Tuesday, an abandoned bag was recovered from inside a train at Guwahati railway station, the GRP said, adding that it contained five packets of suspected opium worth ₹25 lakh and weighing about 4.89 kg, stated report.
“We have recovered four pieces of gold weighing about 1 kg from two persons. The market value of the seized gold is estimated at ₹58 lakh. The two persons hailing from Manipur were travelling to Delhi. In a separate operation, we recovered an abandoned bag inside a train at Guwahati railway station. During the search, we found five packets of suspected opium weighing about 4.89 kg. The market value of the seized opium is estimated at ₹25 lakh. Further investigation is underway,” Officer-in-Charge, GRP Guwahati, Prasenjit Das said as per reports.
https://www.guwahatiplus.com/guwahati/gold-opium-worth-over-rs70-lakh-recovered-at-guwahati-railway-station

One person was arrested on Sunday with fake Indian currency notes worth Rs. 5.65 lakh in Assam’s Sonitpur district.
The accused was identified as Madhab Nath, a resident of Besseria in Tezpur.
Additional Superintendent of Police Birinchi Borah said, “Based on secret information, police launched an operation at Besseria Pukhuria near Tezpur and arrested the accused with fake Indian currency notes worth Rs. 5.65 lakh in Assam’s Sonitpur district on Sunday.”
“During the search, police recovered a huge amount of high-qaulity fake Indian currency notes. 239 and 175 Indian currency notes of Rs. 2000 and Rs. 500 respectively were seized from the accused. The seized fake currency notes’ worth is Rs. 5.65 lakh,” he added.
He further said, “We launched the operation based on source information and arrested Jogen Nath alias Madhab Nath from the Besseria Pukhuria area. The investigation is underway.” It is established that he was involved in smuggling fake currency notes for a long time.
https://www.pratidintime.com/latest-assam-news-breaking-news-assam/sonitpur/assam-1-held-with-fake-currency-notes-worth-rs-565-lakh-in-sonitpur

February 11, 2023 | The Lalit, New Delhi

Smuggling is a global problem, impacting countries and regions across the globe. Governments around the world have taken various decisive measures to combat smuggling, including strengthening border security, implementing stricter trade regulations, and increasing international cooperation to disrupt criminal networks. However, smuggling continues to be a significant challenge that needs immediate attention. In order to address the critical issue of smuggling and reinforce our commitment to raise awareness and foster collaboration CASCADE successfully organized the second edition of Anti-Smuggling Day on 11th February 2023 in New Delhi.

Mr. Mohan Kumar Singh, Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) was the chief guest at the programme. While addressing the conference he highlighted that the enormity of smuggling can be gauged from the fact that DRI seizes more than Rs 1,000 crore of contraband every month, the majority being narcotics and drugs. Smuggling is carried out in our country by the land, sea and air route via different modes- containers, porous borders, usage of sophisticated means by smugglers etc. Mr. Singh cited that today, smugglers are using sophisticated methods and technologies to smuggle goods across international borders. Illicit trade in terms of counterfeiting and smuggling is a global risk that has negative impacts on economic activities, deprives governments of revenue, forces a high burden on taxpayers, exposes customers to dangerous products and provides linkages to terrorism. He emphasized that the Think Tanks like FICCI CASCADE can play an important role in generating fresh ideas, creating awareness, and highlighting the problems of smuggling.

Mr. P K Das, Director, Compliance and Facilitation Directorate, World Customs Organisation (WCO) in the keynote address mentioned that as per UNCTAD smuggling drains 3 per cent of the world’s economy and results in a loss of 2 trillion dollars. Mr. Das opined that to address smuggling WCO has unveiled a three- year strategic plan (2022-25) with a focus in the areas of illicit trade. WCO has also launched a data strategy to nurture and reengineer new processes, incorporate modern disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, drone, robotics etc. Highlighting the importance of sharing best practices to tackle smuggling, Mr. Das shared his insights on the advanced analytics used by CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) to detect fraud in indirect taxation domain in India which was showcased to WCO members as part of disseminating best practices. WCO has been applying technology to improve the seamless flow of information and statistics and real-time intelligence sharing amongst custom agencies.

Speaking on the importance of Anti-Smuggling Day, Mr. Anil Rajput, Chairman, FICCI CASCADE stated that a year ago, on this day, FICCI CASCADE, took the lead and marked the launch of Anti-Smuggling Day on 11th February. On that day we pledged to leave no stone unturned in raising awareness and resolved to take concerted action against this multi-faceted adversary. Mr. Rajput urged the United Nations to recognize and declare 11th February as Anti-Smuggling Day which will significantly encourage international cooperation and coordination in efforts to tackle this issue, as well as provide an effective platform for discussing and addressing the root cause and consequences of smuggling. This recognition will also provide greater thrust for nations to come together to find solutions and combat this global problem.

During the conference, FICCI CASCADE released a report on ‘Regulatory Interventions and Illicit Trade Across Border- Impact on Six Key Industries’. The study examines the impact of tariff and non-tariff regulatory measures on illicit trade in the six key industries namely Alcoholic Beverages, Consumer Electronics, FMCG – Packaged Foods, FMCG-Household & Personal Goods, Mobile Phones and Tobacco Products.
As a run-up to this year’s Anti-Smuggling Day, and to sensitize the youth on the menace of smuggled goods, FICCI CASCADE also organized a Digital Art/Poster making competition on the theme, ‘Stand Against Smuggling’. Winners of the competition were given awards during the conference.

Mr. Deep Chand IPS, Advisor, FICCI CASCADE and Former Special Commissioner of Police, New Delhi highlighted that to battle this menace, it is important that we work together, across borders and sectors, to disrupt the networks and supply chains that supports smuggling. This requires strong laws, and effective enforcement actions, as well as the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders, including governments, businesses, and civil society.

Mr. Najib Shah, Former Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and Think Tank Member, FICCI CASCADE chaired the panel discussion on “Combat Smuggling to Foster National Security and Economic Development”. While chairing the session he stated that 11th February aims to spread awareness and bring on board all enforcement agencies together to understand the extend of the problem and think of ways and means for greater cooperation and coordination. Mr. Shah mentioned that if global organisation like United Nations will recognise Anti-Smuggling Day, we would be able to solve the greater purpose and win our battle against smuggling.

Panellist, Mr. Balesh Kumar, Member, Appellate Tribunal-SAFEMA, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance stated that smuggling is a multidimensional issue and has serious impact on economic and national security of the country. There are four steps that can be taken for creating a meaningful impact to curb smuggling: legislative upgradation in the context of present dynamics of smuggling; second, effect policy changes in sectors that are vulnerable to smuggling; third, use of successful technology risk management measures and fourth, to strengthen resources including equipment and manpower to manage operational issues while combating smuggling.

During the discussion, Mr A M Kulkarni, Additional Director General, National Investigation Agency said that smuggling not only causes money arbitrage but also fuels terrorism as funds earned from such activities are funnelled back to countries which foster terrorism and in turn impact national safety and security. Mr. Ayush Mani Tiwari, IPS, Inspector General- Operations, Border Security Force and Mr. Manish Kumar Negi, Deputy Inspector General, Indian Coast Guard also shared their views in the panel discussion on achieving significant level of inter-agency and international cooperation to combat smuggling and shared methods to formulate prohibitive, combative, and curative measures to control smuggling.

Mr. Anil Sinha, Former Director, Central Bureau of Investigation and Think Tank Member, FICCI CASCADE chaired the panel discussion on “Strengthening the Global Strategy to Combat Smuggling- Achieving Coordinated Actions and Solutions”. Mr. Sinha explained that in the recent times, we have seen the use of disruptive technology which has been building a new ecosystem. He highlighted the use of blockchain for identifying products, numerical identities and bringing together various facets of the trade. He added that the enforcement agencies can come on a common platform, discuss, adopt best practices, and share the need for skill development and upgradation.

Mr. Gautam Shrinivasan, Anchor, CNBC moderated the panel discussion. The other eminent panellists who highlighted the need for real-time data analysis and sharing of intelligence to effectively tackle the problem of smuggling include Ms. Joanne Prior, Counsellor (Australian Border Force), Australian High Commission; Mr. Marco Teixeira, Regional Representative- South Asia, UNODC, Mr. Jason Gooding, Assistant Attache, Homeland Security Investigations, US Embassy and Mr. Rameesh Kailasam, CEO, IndiaTech.org (Technology Services Industry Association). They enunciated effective measures to combat and prosecute offences related to smuggling and emphasized on international and domestic cooperation to combat this global scourge.

Dr. D P Dash, Former Pr. Director-General, DRI, Former Chairman, Enforcement Committee, World Customs Organisation (WCO) and Think Tank Member, FICCI CASCADE during his concluding remarks stated that increasing significance of inter-agency and international cooperation for combating smuggling through better exchange of information and experiences will also help in strengthening national security. The conference witnessed an overwhelming response by more than 300 industry captions, representatives from consumer forums, enforcement agencies, government officials, legal experts amongst others.