Authorities in Maharashtra have intercepted more than 100 trucks transporting approximately 2,500 tonnes of prohibited Indonesian areca nuts that had been deliberately polished with carcinogenic chemicals to deceive buyers and regulators. These substandard nuts, explicitly banned in India for their proven links to oral cancer, were en route to factories producing pan masala and gutkha, posing an imminent and severe public health threat across multiple states.

The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) department’s preventive wing exposed a highly organized smuggling syndicate that allegedly evaded customs duties of over 105 per cent while orchestrating tax fraud estimated to run into hundreds of crores of rupees. Senior officials described the seizure as merely “the tip of the iceberg,” warning that several hundred additional truckloads of identical contraband are believed to have successfully reached markets in recent weeks.

Investigators have traced a sophisticated supply chain: the banned nuts entered through southern ports, underwent chemical polishing in Mangaluru to mimic premium Indian chali or betel nut varieties, were loaded onto trains bound for the Raigad rail corridor, and then distributed by road to Nagpur, Delhi, the National Capital Region, and various centres in Uttar Pradesh. Two Karnataka-registered firms, NN Traders and SRS Traders, allegedly operated through dummy proprietors from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to create a paper trail of fraudulent GST invoices.

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The alleged masterminds, Kader Khan of Kasargod, Kerala, and Sameer Khan of Mangaluru, Karnataka, are now under intense scrutiny as enforcement agencies uncover the use of forged shipping documents, multiple bogus GST registrations, and shell companies to bypass Customs, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Parallel probes by the DRI’s preventive arm have been initiated to establish the exact foreign origin of the seized stock.

Health authorities and the Food and Drug Administration have issued unequivocal warnings that any release of these chemically treated nuts into the market could trigger a public health catastrophe, potentially fuelling a sharp rise in oral cancer cases. The FDA has directed strict containment of the entire seized quantity, while coordinated investigations by tax, customs, and revenue intelligence agencies continue to dismantle the remaining network and prevent further consignments from reaching consumers.

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