DRI busts drone smuggling racket in Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad zonal unit of directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) arrested the kingpin of an international racket smuggling high-end drones into India. After his arrest on Thursday, the man admitted to his crime before authorities. The accused has been identified as Chinmay Mehulbhai Anand, who works at a business called OK Studio owned by his father, confirmed sources. DRI said the racket was in operation since 2017 and thousands of drones valued upwards of Rs 10 crore, and involving duty evasion of nearly Rs 3 crore, were smuggled into India.
Earlier this year, in March, officers of the Ahmedabad zonal unit of DRI seized some 85 high-end drones of various brands in addition to 27 flying kits, 34 hand-held stabilizers for DSLR cameras and mirror-less cameras (used in film shooting) – all of which have a market value of more than Rs 1 crore. The goods smuggled from China were seized from a tempo which was ferrying the goods from the Ahmedabad Air Cargo Complex and also from the kingpin’s shop located in Paldi area of the city.

According to DRI officials, the racket involved smugglers from Pakistan, China, Myanmar and India.
“The high-end drones, i.e. remotely piloted aircrafts were smuggled to Imphal in Manipur through Moreh, a small town in Manipur, located on the India-Myanmar border,” mentioned a statement issued by the Ahmedabad zonal unit of DRI. Till Imphal, various modes of road transport were used to carry the drones. From Imphal, these drones were shipped to Ahmedabad through domestic airlines by declaring the prohibited cargo as camera stands, household goods and electronic items to elude detection by Indian agencies.
“Once in Ahmedabad, the drones were distributed to various locations across the country by using private couriers. The purchase money for the smuggled drones was sent by the Ahmedabad-based smuggler to the Chinese company through hawala channels operating out of Mumbai,” mentioned the DRI statement. Further investigation in the case is under way and multiple aspects of the operation are being probed, confirmed DRI.