NEW DELHI: Arms belonging to Nepal's Maoist insurgents are finding their way to the underworld, says a report of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence report.

The DRI dossier, submitted to the government as part of its annual report for 2004-05 on "outright smuggling", expresses concern that the nature of smuggling along this border has changed from "consumer and industrial goods to arms and ammunition, explosives and fake Indian currency notes."

Moreover, the report says that now smugglers employ individuals and smaller groups for supplying contraband. This marks a sharp decline in smuggling by organised syndicates, it adds.

On the modus operandi, the DRI report says that vehicles coming from Nepal, specially empty oil tankers, are used to smuggle in arms into India.

Apart from Nepal, the report mentions Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Myanmar borders used for smuggling arms and ammunition into the country.

The report says the old route of smuggling - through the 3,300-km West Coast states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala - has decreased since 1991 as a result of constant vigil maintained by enforcement agencies. However, narcotics smuggling continues in this sector through container traffic.

The 1,800-km Indo-Nepal border which touches Uttaranchal, UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim is at present the most active and vulnerable sector from the smuggling point of view, the report adds.

The Indo-Bangladesh border, stretching over 2,650 km along Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Bengal, is an open border and illegal cross-border movement of people through it is extensive.

Another sensitive sector used for smuggling arms and ammunition is India's 2,896-km-long border with Pakistan across the states of J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. "Smuggling by residents of border villages is suspected despite heavy patrolling by the armed forces," the report notes.

Smuggling is rampant in areas falling under the land customs stations at Attari, Amritsar and other neighbouring regions in Punjab and J&K, says the departmental report.