SMUGGLING

DRI busts diesel smuggling racket spanning TN, AP and Telangana

Diesel smuggling Some of the containers with diesel that was seized at Chennai Port | ANI

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has busted a diesel-smuggling racket wherein diesel was being brought to India in the guise of mineral spirit by certain operators from Dubai through containers at Chennai Port for illegal sale in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. DRI has seized 14 containers of diesel having value of over Rs. 1 crore and arrested 4 persons, including the mastermind and one hawala operator. The intelligence came from the Andhra Pradesh state intelligence department.

Searches conducted at two container freight stations in Chennai revealed that 14 containers imported at Chennai Port in the name of M/s SAF Petroleum and M/s Aditya Marine landed at Sanco CFS, Chennai, and Gateway CFS, Chennai, where the goods were declared as mineral spirit. These containers were found to be actually carrying 263.78 MT (approximately 3 lakh litres) of diesel. On being questioned, this was admitted by the operators and was also confirmed during chemical examination. Simultaneous searches were conducted across Kakinada and Chennai, covering 12 places belonging to operators/importers, clearing agents, transportation broker, supervisor, hawala operators and so forth.

Diesel is a restricted commodity for import as per the foreign trade policy and is allowed to be imported only by IOC and other oil marketing companies, which meet the requirements of ministry of petroleum and is not allowed to be imported by others. To circumvent this restriction, the operators of diesel smuggling based at Kakinada hatched a plan and started smuggling ‘diesel’ in the guise of ‘mineral spirit’. They not only imported the restricted item but also declared it at much lower value, around 40% of the actual value, thereby evading customs duty on the consignments.

The operators had offices in Kakinada, a storage yard at Maraimalai Nagar, Chennai, and an office front at Guindy, Chennai, to facilitate smuggling and distribution. A relative of one of the operators from Kakinada was looking after the logistics, moving the diesel into the grey markets in Chennai, Kakinada and Ongole and parts of Telangana. Dummy companies were opened in Dubai to purchase diesel and import the same to Chennai by creating false documents and invoices.

The price difference was being adjusted by payments through hawala channels. It is found that in the past, these operators have smuggled around 5,366 MT (approximately 63 lakh litres) of diesel valued at around Rs.17.7 crore, which comes to around 285 containers.