Gujarat cops uncover 10,000 liquor bottles hidden in truck

Ahmedabad, Feb 9:  The Ahmedabad Police have seized a large consignment of foreign liquor concealed beneath a load of helmets and arrested a truck driver during an operation in the Narol area of the city, officials said on Monday.

Acting on specific intelligence, the PCB team stationed a watch near Sainath Parking on the S.P. Ring Road, close to Aslali Circle, and intercepted a truck for inspection late Sunday night.

During a detailed search, officers discovered a substantial quantity of foreign liquor hidden beneath 1,053 helmets loaded in the upper portion of the vehicle.

Officials said the concealment appeared deliberately designed to evade detection during routine checks.

On inspection, the police recovered 10,749 bottles of foreign liquor, estimated to be worth Rs 63,86,608. The helmets were valued at Rs 5,25,447.

The truck, registered in Himachal Pradesh, along with a mobile phone and cash, was also seized. The total value of the confiscated property is estimated at over Rs 84.22 lakh.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the consignment was loaded in Chandigarh and was being transported to Junagadh in violation of Gujarat’s prohibition laws.

The arrested driver, identified as 38-year-old Johnny Baldevsinh Chandel, a resident of Hawani village in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, is being questioned to determine the source and intended recipients of the consignment.

A police officer noted that bootleggers often use legitimate goods as cover to transport illicit liquor across state borders, and vigilant surveillance combined with timely intelligence was key to detecting and stopping this shipment.

The Narol police station is coordinating with other agencies to trace the broader network involved in the smuggling operation.

The seizure comes amid similar recent operations in Gujarat. In October 2025, the Sola High Court Police Surveillance Squad intercepted a truck near Gota Bridge carrying boxes labelled as hospital medicine, which concealed 5,520 bottles and tins of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth about Rs 30.9 lakh.

Two men from Punjab were arrested in that case.

In another incident in September 2025, near Kapurai crossroads in Vadodara, the Special Monitoring Cell seized 8,231 bottles of IMFL valued at Rs 44.93 lakh from a pickup truck.

The vehicle was confiscated, and police launched efforts to trace the suspects involved.

--IANS