14 held at Hyderabad Airport with cigarettes, e-cigarettes worth Rs 50 lakh

Hyderabad, July 30:  Customs officials at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here apprehended 14 passengers who arrived from Sharjah and Dubai and seized cigarettes and e-cigarettes estimated to be valued at Rs 50 lakh, during the last one week.

In the latest incident, six passengers were held while trying to smuggle cigarettes and e-cigarettes from Sharjah.

Customs officials said on Saturday that the passengers arrived by flight 6E1406 on Friday. As many as 22,600 cigarettes and 940 e-cigarettes total valued at Rs 11.66 lakhs were seized.

"The goods have been confiscated. Further Investigation is in progress," Hyderabad Customs said.

This is the third case in a week in which Customs officials apprehended passengers for trying to smuggle cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

On July 27, customs officials had apprehended three passengers and seized the contraband. They too had also arrived from Sharjah by flight 6E1406.

Officials said the three passengers tried to smuggle 40,800 cigarettes and 1010 e-cigarettes valuing approximately Rs 14 lakhs.

Earlier, on July 25, six passengers were apprehended at the airport. They had arrived from Dubai and Sharjah by flights EK526 and 6E1406 respectively.

Cigarettes and e- cigarettes valued about Rs 25 lakhs were confiscated.