Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)

India’s customs-intelligence agency does more than check bags at ports. It busts drug labs and untangles trade routes designed to hide where goods really came from.

Container handling at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Nhava Sheva — one of the ports where DRI has intercepted smuggled gold, cigarettes, and e-cigarettes. Photo by Ccmarathe, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

MCQ Questions

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence

1957

DRI is India’s premier anti-smuggling intelligence agency

Constituted 4 December 1957, functions under the CBIC, Ministry of Finance.

12 Zonal Units

900+ Officers

Anti-smuggling network across major ports, airports, and borders.

364 MT Seized

Pakistan-Origin Dates

Worth ₹3 crore, misdeclared as UAE-origin, Kandla Port.

Alprazolam Bust

Satara, 1 Aug 2026

~16 kg Alprazolam + 3.75 kg Diazepam seized.

50+ Laws Enforced

Customs Act, NDPS Act +

Wildlife Protection Act, Arms Act, and more.

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📑 Contents

1DRI’s Mandate and Legal Powers
2DRI’s Organisational Structure and Reach
3Test Yourself
4DRI Within India’s Wider Enforcement Architecture
5Current Affairs

DRI’s Mandate and Legal Powers Need to Know

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is India’s premier anti-smuggling intelligence agency, one of several bodies covered in Polity0015 — India’s Security and Intelligence Agencies. It functions under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Ministry of Finance.
DRI was constituted on 4 December 1957. Its roots trace back to the Central Revenue Intelligence Board (CRIB), set up in 1953.
DRI enforces the Customs Act, 1962, along with over fifty other allied laws. These include the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, the Arms Act, 1959, and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
DRI officers are notified as Customs Officers under the Customs Act. They are also authorised officers under the NDPS Act.
DRI’s core mandate covers detecting and curbing the smuggling of prohibited goods: narcotics, gold, diamonds, counterfeit currency, wildlife products, and hazardous substances.

DRI’s Organisational Structure and Reach Good to Know

DRI operates through 12 zonal units, each headed by an Additional Director General. These are further divided into regional and sub-regional units.
Its zonal, regional, and sub-regional units concentrate at major ports, airports, land border points, and metropolitan cities.
DRI’s original 1957 mandate also included training intelligence and investigation officers at Custom Houses and Central Excise Collectorates.
Beyond narcotics and gold, DRI also targets counterfeit currency, antiquities, and wildlife trafficking linked to the Wildlife Protection Act and CITES.

Test Yourself

DRI Within India’s Wider Enforcement Architecture Great to Know

DRI’s jurisdiction sits at the intersection of trade policy and security. Many of its cases involve misdeclaring a good’s country of origin, not just physically hiding contraband.
This makes DRI a key enforcer of India’s trade-prohibition policy toward Pakistan, covered in IntlRel0002 — India-Pakistan and India-China Relations. This sits alongside DRI’s more traditional anti-narcotics and anti-gold-smuggling role.
DRI coordinates closely with Customs field formations, the Narcotics Control Bureau, and state police. Smuggling networks routinely cross agency and state lines, so no single body works alone.
DRI is one part of a wider Indian anti-smuggling and counter-narcotics architecture. This includes agencies like the Narcotics Control Bureau, and laws like the NDPS Act, 1985.
DRI operates under CBIC, the sibling board of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The two boards were created together on 1 January 1964, when the older Central Board of Revenue split in two.
DRI shares its parent department with the Enforcement Directorate. Both sit under the Department of Revenue, but DRI handles customs and smuggling, while the ED handles money laundering. See Polity0204.

Current Affairs

16 August 2026: DRI dismantled a smuggling syndicate that mis-declared South-East Asian areca nuts as Bangladeshi. This let the syndicate wrongly claim duty-free entry under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).
- Areca nut imports normally attract a 100% Basic Customs Duty. But genuine imports from Bangladesh are fully duty-exempt under SAFTA, if they meet the Rules of Origin criteria.
- The syndicate actually sourced its areca nuts from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and other South-East Asian countries. It routed them through an export zone in Bangladesh first, swapping containers and bags there.
- It then obtained fraudulent SAFTA Certificates of Origin from Bangladeshi authorities. This made the goods look Bangladeshi on paper.
- DRI searched multiple premises linked to importers, Customs Brokers, and IEC holders, in Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. Officers seized about ₹75 lakh in cash, plus a live consignment of about 160 MT of areca nuts.
- The month-long investigation found the fraud had cost the exchequer over ₹2,500 crore in evaded customs duty. This built up over recent years. Nine people have been arrested so far.
- DRI also found the syndicate used hawala channels and dummy entities, to move and layer its money. One Customs Broker firm’s licence was suspended, for clearing most of the fraudulent shipments.
(Source: PIB)
25 July 2026: DRI’s Mumbai Zonal Unit busted two gold-smuggling syndicates at Mumbai airport, seizing 15.764 kg of 24-carat gold worth ₹23.63 crore, and arresting 8 people.
- In “Operation Sky Vault” (23-24 July), officers intercepted 3 foreign passengers arriving from Addis Ababa. They recovered 12.004 kg of gold bars, worth about ₹18 crore, concealed inside the aircraft itself for later retrieval.
- In “Operation Midas Mop” (22-23 July), officers caught 2 aircraft cleaning staff and a passenger from Dubai. They recovered 3.76 kg of gold dust in wax form, worth about ₹5.63 crore, meant for retrieval after the passenger left.
(Source: IANS).
5-6 August 2026: DRI conducted a coordinated anti-smuggling operation across Assam and Mizoram, seizing methamphetamine, poppy seeds, and areca nuts, all traced to the Indo-Myanmar border.
- On 6 August, DRI intercepted an ambulance near Sakei Bangla, about 40 km from Aizawl, Mizoram, seizing 15 kg of methamphetamine tablets worth over ₹45 crore. The drugs were hidden beside a dummy patient on a gurney; three people were arrested and the ambulance seized under the NDPS Act, 1985. The consignment had entered via the Champhai-Zokhawthar route, bound for Assam.
- On the night of 5 August, DRI officers backed by Assam Rifles recovered about 11 MT of foreign-origin poppy seeds, worth around ₹1.67 crore, at a storage facility in Badarpur, Karimganj district, Assam, hidden inside bags marked as tea consignments.
- The same day, DRI intercepted Train No. 22411 at Rangia Railway Station and seized 10 MT of foreign-origin areca nuts worth around ₹1 crore, also of Myanmar origin.
(Source: Observer Voice)
On 5 August 2026, DRI announced it had seized 364 MT of banned Pakistan-origin dry dates, worth about ₹3 crore, at Kandla Port. Importers had misdeclared the goods as UAE-origin, routing them through Dubai to evade India’s ban on Pakistan-origin imports.
This ban stems from DGFT Notification No. 06/2025-26, dated 2 May 2025. It prohibits direct or indirect import or transit of all goods originating in or exported from Pakistan, under the Foreign Trade Policy 2023.
The same release referenced an earlier DRI case: about 14 MT of Guggul resin, falsely declared as Somalia-origin, seized at Tuticorin port. It was actually Pakistan-origin. Guggul is CITES Appendix II-listed and IUCN Critically Endangered; two people were arrested.
On 1 August 2026, DRI busted a clandestine Alprazolam and Diazepam manufacturing unit in Satara district, Maharashtra. It seized about 1 kg of finished Alprazolam, over 15 kg of Alprazolam in intermediary form, and about 3.75 kg of Diazepam, along with roughly 400 litres of raw materials and reaction mixtures.
DRI officers then ran a swift follow-up operation in Pune, arresting the intended buyer of the consignment. Both Alprazolam and Diazepam are NDPS Act-regulated psychotropic benzodiazepines, with legitimate medical uses but high abuse and dependence potential.
On 18 July 2026, DRI announced a nationwide crackdown on drugs, cigarettes, and arms smuggling. Five people were arrested, across multiple operations.
- In Mizoram, officers intercepted a truck on the Aizawl-Champhai Road. They seized 15 kg of Methamphetamine tablets, smuggled from Myanmar via the Zokhawthar sector.
- At Nhava Sheva, Mumbai, DRI found nearly 85 lakh smuggled Gold Flake cigarettes. They were hidden in a container from Dubai, declared as “Plastic Storage Boxes.” The haul was valued at ₹20 crore.
- In Punjab’s Amritsar sector, officers recovered two drone-dropped parcels near the International Border. They contained Pakistan-made pistols with magazines.
- In Chennai, DRI seized about 4 kg of Pseudoephedrine, a Methamphetamine precursor chemical, from a clandestine premises. Four people were arrested.
(Source: PIB)
Separately on 18 July 2026, DRI announced a crackdown on precious-metals smuggling. Officers seized 15 kg of gold, 20 kg of silver, and ₹2.20 crore in cash. Thirteen people were arrested.
- In New Delhi, officers seized about 5 kg of gold and 20 kg of silver, worth around ₹7.37 crore. They also recovered ₹2.20 crore in cash, believed to be sale proceeds.
- At IGI Airport, a passenger arriving from Bagdogra was caught with 1 kg of gold. It was hidden inside his luggage’s metallic frame.
- At Mumbai Airport, DRI dismantled a syndicate smuggling gold dust worth about ₹7.50 crore. It was hidden in the undergarments of three foreign nationals, with three airport staff also arrested.
- In West Bengal, officers intercepted two vehicles carrying 32 gold biscuits, worth about ₹6 crore, hidden in specially fabricated cavities.
(Source: PIB)
Between 7-10 July 2026, DRI ran coordinated pan-India operations against wildlife trafficking. It seized over 440 endangered or protected animals and about 15 kg of ivory articles, and arrested 33 people. (Source: PIB)
Operations spanned Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and West Bengal, among other states. A joint DRI-CBI operation in Maharashtra and West Bengal recovered Schedule I species, including Slow Lorises, Binturongs, Star Tortoises, and Egyptian Vultures. (Source: PIB)
DRI also intercepted wildlife smuggled through international airports, from passengers arriving from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Colombo. Seized species included exotic turtles, lizards, and primates, along with pangolin scales, leopard pelt, and Red Sanders wood. (Source: PIB)
On 1 July 2026, DRI dismantled a gold-smuggling syndicate on the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal. Officers intercepted 7 people travelling by motorcycle from Krishnanagar toward Chakdaha, in Nadia district.
They recovered 180 pieces of foreign-marked, defaced gold bars, concealed in specially tailored cloth belts. The haul weighed about 24 kg, worth roughly ₹34 crore. All 7 were arrested under the Customs Act, 1962. Investigators found the gold was being relayed onward to another set of carriers after collection near the border.
1 August 2026: DRI reported a week of pan-India operations, seizing gold, narcotics, red sanders, e-cigarettes, and restricted goods, and arresting 20 people, including 5 foreign nationals.
- Officers seized about 9.5 kg of gold worth roughly ₹14 crore across multiple operations, including 4 kg from a false-bottomed trolley cavity at IGI Airport, Delhi, and 3.2 kg from carriers along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Nine people were arrested.
- At Chennai, officers intercepted a truck and recovered 142 Red Sanders logs, weighing about 4.8 MT and worth roughly ₹2.5 crore, concealed behind empty plastic crates.
- In Manipur, DRI and Assam Rifles intercepted a vehicle near Churachandpur, recovering about 2.7 kg of heroin hidden inside 220 soap cases.
- In Mumbai, officers seized about 2 kg of Amphetamine crystals and MDMA tablets from two female foreign nationals, and about 25 kg of hydroponic weed from passengers arriving from Bangkok.
- At Nhava Sheva, DRI recovered 9,230 prohibited e-cigarettes worth about ₹3.7 crore, mis-declared as LED lights and fixtures.
- In Mizoram, officers searched godowns near the Indo-Myanmar border and recovered about 14.5 MT of poppy seeds and 14 MT of areca nuts, worth around ₹3.6 crore, smuggled via the Zokhawthar sector.
(Source: PIB)
26 June 2026: DRI dismantled an organised gold-smuggling syndicate operating through Mumbai Airport, seizing about 15 kg of foreign-origin gold worth ₹23 crore, and arresting 15 people.
- At Mumbai, officers busted a gold-melting facility and arrested 9 people across the smuggling chain — airport staff, handlers, intermediaries, and melters — recovering 6 kg of gold on the spot.
- In Bengaluru, officers seized 1.8 kg of 24-carat gold paste hidden in a passenger’s clothing, plus 1.5 kg of gold jewellery, 45 kg of silver, and cash, at his residence.
- Follow-up operations at Hyderabad, Rajkot, Calicut, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, and Petrapole recovered another 6 kg of gold. A concurrent Surat operation seized 2 kg of cocaine.
(Source: Akashvani/All India Radio, Ministry of Finance).