Contraband silk seized at airport

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, AUG. 29.

High-quality Chinese silk, worth Rs.1.5 crores, was seized by the Customs Preventive Unit from the baggage of an Uzbek woman who arrived by a Kyrgyztan Airlines flight at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Monday.

Acting on specific intelligence that Uzbek nationals were bringing goods in large quantities for commercial purpose to Delhi, the officials stepped up their vigil. As a result, 18,000 yards of Chinese silk were found in the baggage of the Uzbek woman, Olga Kozireva.

Officials detained Olga and on repeated questioning she apparently admitted her intention to smuggle in the fabric and sell it in Delhi. The 26-year-old woman, officials said, had visited India 10 times in the past three months.

Further, officials expressed apprehension that recent catches had indicated increasing involvement of Uzbek nationals in smuggling. According to the Customs Commissioner, Mr. Siddharth Kak, this was the seventh case in the last 10 months involving Uzbeks. Earlier seizures had largely included gold and medicines. Officials said Uzbeks had begun to see India as a favourable destination and a profitable market for smuggled goods.

With this, the total value of seizures by Customs for August rose to Rs. 3.83 crores. The Deputy Commissioner (Preventive), Mr. Ravinder Saroop, said this was their best performance ever in a single month. Besides, the total value of seizures had also gone up between April and August by nearly Rs. 7 crores compared to the corresponding period last year.

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