Mumbai Police has stumbled upon a neat syndicate that specialises in appropriating goods from the airport's cargo complex, and delivering them to their receivers who want to escape paying duty on the goods.
In the past few months, consignments worth more than Rs 100 crore have been smuggled out of the complex without any official clearance, setting the state exchequer back by a few hundred crores that it would have earned by way of import taxes on the goods.
The smuggling racket was exposed after cops arrested a clearing and forwarding house agent working in tandem with porters at the airport on Sunday night.
The arrest came when a package of fabric and lace went missing from the air cargo complex at Sahar on Friday. Customs officials had kept the consignment under observation as the agent had 'misdeclared' the contents to be something else to avoid paying duty.
But when Joint Commissioner of Customs Prashant Khaduskas asked his officers to bring a sample for examination, the package was found to be missing even though it featured on the inventory at the cargo complex.
After some prying, a team under zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police Satyanarayan Choudhary, on Sunday night, nabbed the agent, Rajendra Kotian.
He allegedly is the facilitator for the bootleg goods. They forced the names of his accomplices out of him. Police now suspect porters Shailendra Kalu Singh, Praveen Jha and one Anant.
"We have recovered the consignment valued around Rs 3 lakh after arresting the accused. A few more arrests are likely soon," added DCP Choudhary.
Choudhary refused to share further details fearing it might hamper investigations.
Based on confessions, cops deduced that hundreds of items still on the cargo records are only present in the godown in name. In reality, they have been smuggled out of the complex.
Nexus
Investigators realised that members of the syndicate lifted the goods out of the complex with the help of some porters.
Apart from that, it showed considerable skill in using bogus import-export codes, roping in a few customs officers to help them out.
Having made everyone a party to its shady dealings, the syndicate managed to bypass the entire procedure of declaration of goods by producing bills of entry, examination and octoroi duty regarding the consignments.
Its expertise in bootlegging lured several importers, who approached Kotian, to get their goods cleared without dishing up the attached taxes.
Cops surmise that the agents could not have pulled the trick without tacit consent from customs officials.
A senior customs official disclosed that some tainted agents have been arranging private dance parties secretly for officials at locations like Khandala, Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar to buy their silence.
Police are already checking for the possibility of links between the agents and the underworld. Dozens of porters have come under scanner but nothing has been confirmed as yet.
Sources said that the tainted agents, growing fat on the ill-gotten money, have been investing in other areas like real estate. Many have bought assets in mushrooming business centres in the western suburbs of the city.
Mumbai International Airport Limited spokesperson Manish Kalkatki said, "As a standard practice, MIAL has the necessary systems in place for the inventory of cargo. In fact, it was we who filed the FIR with the police in this case."
Contraband Popular items smuggled now: Electronic items like hard disks, computer ICs, laces, special fabrics, cigarettes, high-end watches, gold, exotic animals, red sanders, diamond and currencies.
Items smuggled earlier: Textiles like Boski and Stretchlon, Omex watches, cigarette lighters, garments from South East Asia, music systems, VCRs, televisions sets, gold and diamond.
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