Three persons have been arrested by the customs when two container load of goods were seized from a godown at Vikhroli in north-east Mumbai on Friday last. The seizure was effected following a tip off that vitamin-C was being smuggled by concealing it in specially made cavities in drums that were declared as carrying wax.

The consignment of wax, two containers of 20 ft each, comprised 80 drums containing 125 kg of wax each. These were imported from Dubai. Of the 160 drums, 80 contained wax while in the rest of the drums, vitamin-C packed in 25 kg HDPE bags was concealed over which a tin plate was welded. Above this tin plate was filled with a layer of 3 inches to 4 inches ofwax.

The two containers were cleared by the customs, reportedly without any in-depth checking and had reached the godown in Vikhroli from where it was being distributed in the local market.

According to sources, the consignment of vitamin-C did not bear any markings and is purportedly purchased China. The quality of the consignment is not known and sources fear that the same may be used in repacking as reputed brands and sold locally.

When the customs raided the godown, they found one Dipak Kasat, whose brother Mahendra Kasat is reportedly based in Dubai. Dipak had imported the consignment through Mahendra and his associate Benedict. The consignee as declared to the customs was a firm identified as Om Enterprise. The customs staff arrested Jagjivan Thakur, who was present in the godown.

Inquiries revealed that these persons have imported four such consignments in the recent past and the sale proceeds have been passed on to some one in south Mumbai at the behest of the importers' Gulf-based associates.Totally goods valued at over Rs 2.5 crore have been smuggled in through this route by these persons.

However, according to sources the main persons behind the racket are yet to be traced and brought to book. These persons had arranged for the clearances of all the five consignments by resorting to no-check facility introduced in the norms. The three arrested have been taken on remand till Tuesday.