Customs officials trace smuggled consignment to Alfa Store in Vile Parle, seize goods worth Rs 1 crore

The Marine and Preventive wing of the Mumbai Customs busted a major racket last week after tracing a consignment of smuggled goods to Alfa Store in Mumbai’s Vile Parle area.

After receiving a tip-off, Customs officials on Friday followed a tempo containing the smuggled goods from South Mumbai to learn about the buyer.

The team finally intercepted the tempo after workers started unloading the goods at Alfa Store, located at Irla Society Road in Vile Parle West. The store, incidentally, is known for selling electronic goods at highly discounted rates.

The sleuths seized the consignment containing high-end mobile phones, accessories, cosmetics, confectionary and other electronic goods.

According to Deepak Pandit, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, the seized goods were valued at well over Rs 1 crore.

Following the seizure, the store’s manager was detained for questioning and a case under relevant sections of the Customs Act, 1962 was registered against the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, Customs officials are trying to ascertain the source of the goods and apprehend those responsible for running the smuggling racket.

The action comes days after two other similar consignments were seized by Pandit’s team.

In the first case, officials seized smuggled goods including 10,000 watches, 6,000 bluetooth headphones, and 17,000 mobile scratch guards on April 6. The goods were valued at over Rs 5 crore.

Barely two days later, a similar consignment containing smuggled mobile phone parts, LCD touchpads, and mobile phone back covers worth an estimated Rs 3 crore were seized from a tempo truck near Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).

The goods were transported to Mumbai from Chennai. Since the consignment was seized before it could reach the buyer, officials laid a trap this time around and waited for the tempo to reach its destination before taking any action.