3 nabbed for smuggling Agarwoods

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday arrested three men from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for allegedly trying to smuggle out of the country, Agarwood worth crores. The men were arrested as they arrived at the airport to take a flight to Kuwait, where they were to deliver these Agarwoods, used widely for the production of perfume.

According to the officers, the arrests were made based on intelligence inputs when NCB sleuths intercepted the trio as they approached the Security Hold Area of Terminal 3 to catch a flight to Kuwait.

"Three persons have been arrested from Delhi airport who were trying to smuggle high quality Agarwood worth crores of rupees to Kuwait. The arrests were made by the officers of Delhi Zonal Unit of Narcotics Control Bureau and they seized around 71 Kg of high quality Agarwoods worth crores from three people, who were identified as Mohammed Somsul Islam, Mohammed Helal Uddin and Mohibur Rahman," said a senior officer.

All the three persons were identified as residents of Naigaon in Assam and were travelling to Mumbai, to catch their flight scheduled to Kuwait from Mumbai, in order to avoid suspicion, the officer added. "Agarwood is in the list of restricted items which cannot be exported from India. The item is in high demand in Middle East nations and is widely used in manufacturing of perfumes by extracting the essential oil from Agarwood," the officer added.