Mumbai: Smuggling Of Hi-Tech Chip Raises Security Concerns

The intelligence agencies are on high alert after a banned consignment of hi-tech chips with multiple use in drones and missiles got smuggled into Mumbai from under the nose of Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House (JNCH) at Nhava Sheva Special Economic Zone (SEZ) last week. The import of A100 and H100 chips used in drones and missiles is banned in India.

Consequently, the Mumbai police and other law agencies were tipped off possible swarm drone attacks on religious places and markets. The breach becomes more concerning because trade of such chips requires clearance from Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) Wing, Defence Research and Development Organisation as well as Department of Atomic Energy.

As per the documents accessed by the Free Press Journal, the imported consignment classifiable are not meant for domestic tariff area (DTA), still they sneaked into Mumbai; allegedly due to lapses and connivance of some officials at the Nhava Sheva port. After getting the input, the intel agencies alerted the Customs special intelligence and investigation branch, asking it to put on hold the consignment until further orders.

Upon digging deeper, it was found that the chipsets were imported at Arshiya SEZ at Nhava Sheva port by M/s Shezar Web Technologies Pvt Ltd, with its registered office at Andheri. US firm Dataknox Solutions was found to be the supplier. The contraband was supposed to be further exported to Russia as per the documents and bill of landing. Pertinently, there is a trade embargo between the US and Russia after the Ukraine war. The chips could have been used by terror groups if they had reached its destination, said a senior intelligence officer.

“It is shocking that dual use chips got imported under false declaration. The consignment slipped Customs checks,” said the officer, adding that it was being exported without value addition to increase 20% of its value to Russia, probably for money laundering.

According to JNCH officials, importers are taking refuge under false pretext that these goods are not meant for India and exported from the SEZ only to Russia, which does not require SCOMET registration. Earlier, Arshiya SEZ was under the scanner for replacing export goods into DTA in connivance with few Customs officers.

Use of hi-tech chips

Sensitive NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU delivers unprecedented acceleration

It powers the world’s highest-performing elastic data centers for AI, data analytics

H100 Tensor Core GPU can be connected to accelerate exascale workloads

It can solve trillion-parameter language models at incredible 30X speed