Cracking down on the illegal liquor trade, as many as 13 alleged liquor smugglers were arrested from different districts of Meerut division.
333 litres of smuggled liquor was seized from the accused last night during the drive launched by Police and Excise departments.
"Due to difference of prices liquor mafia smuggles liquor into Uttar Pradesh districts from neighbouring Haryana and Delhi state where liquor is cheaper than 30 to 40 per cent than Uttar Pradesh liquor rates," Gautam Buddha Nagar district Excise officer Kuldeep Yadav said today.
"As per the Excise rules, not a single bottle is allowed to be brought into the district from other states. If someone is bringing for own consumption, then the bottle cap should be open otherwise it will be treated as smuggled liquor. Only one such opened bottle is allowed," he said.
"Special regular drive has been launched in association with police to check liquor smuggling. Last night, three liquor smugglers were arrested and 145 bottles of smuggled liquor seized by police," he also said.
The other districts where the drive was conducted were Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar.
Some bottles contained urea. A car in which liquor was being brought illegally from Haryana was also impounded, police said.
