Liquor smugglers show their 'mettle', but land in police net!

Two smugglers used iron pipes and other construction material to hide a massive consignment of Indian made foreign liquor being transported illegally from Chandigarh to Bihar in a truck before a joint team of the Lucknow police and the excise department intercepted the vehicle near Kabirpur village close to Purvanchal Expressway on Sultanpur road in Lucknow and seized over 14,000 bottles of IMFL worth around Rs 30 lakh in the early hours of Saturday.

- Animesh Mishra

The truck was fitted with iron pipes and rods to make it appear like a load of scrap or construction material. Under them, the smugglers had welded a secret chamber of around 2.5 feet in the vehicle's middle section to hide cartons of liquor bottles, said excise inspector Vivek Singh.

"Had someone checked the vehicle from behind or on top, they would only see iron pipes, making the liquor almost impossible to detect," said a senior excise officer.