NEW DELHI: In a crackdown on international tobacco smuggling, Delhi Police arrested five men and seized 2.42 lakh foreign cigarettes allegedly smuggled from Dubai and Bangkok. The accused were intercepted by the Crime Branch outside Terminal-3 of IGI Airport on the night of June 2–3, following a tip-off. The cigarettes, lacking mandatory Indian health warnings, are banned under Indian law. Each of the accused was found carrying two oversized bags packed with cigarettes of various foreign brands. Police said the men had arrived on different flights, but their synchronised movement and identical baggage suggested a coordinated operation. The arrested individuals were identified as Vivek Kumar Kanojia (54,000 sticks), Zakir Alam (64,000), Md Shoaib (36,000), Gulsanawar (44,000), and Nazish (44,000) — residents of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
During interrogation, they confessed to working as couriers for an organised smuggling syndicate and were promised Rs 70,000–80,000 per trip, with travel and accommodation arranged by handlers abroad. DCP (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam said the syndicate used a decentralised model and odd-hour flights to avoid customs. Most accused were unemployed. Efforts to trace the ringleaders are ongoing.