5 held for phone smuggling, Rs 26 crore duty evasion

MUMBAI: Five people involved in smuggling of mobile phones and accessories through the air cargo complex, thus evading Rs 26 crore customs duty, were arrested by customs officials on Monday.
Customs officials have arrested Murari Sawant of Ryan Sea Air Agents, Manish Barot of Chitalia Logistics, Ashwin Joshi of H P Joshi and Co, Pradeep Rane of APS Logistics.And one Amit Singhania has been identified as the key broker behind executing the fraud. They have been remanded in custody till June 6.
On May 8, TOI had reported about the transfer of 11 customs officers after a surprise inspection of the air cargo complex revealed that a group of importers has been smuggling mobile phones and accessories.
Investigations showed a criminal nexus between importers and customs brokers where import export code (IEC) was obtained on the name of bogus importer, a press release issued by customs department said. IEC is a registration required for those who are into imports and exports. These bogus IECs were then used by customs agents to carry out the imports. Over 400 consignments have been smuggled in since April, officials said.
The probe also showed that some parties registered in Hong Kong and China were the suppliers of the consignments. They had supplied only to the smugglers, officials said.