Pakistan seizes Gulf-bound hashish worth $50 million: official

KARACHI: Coast Guards said they seized on Tuesday three tonnes of hashish bound for the Middle East where its estimated street value would have been $50 million, in one of their biggest drug hauls.

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The naval force carried out the raid in Pasni, Balochistan, a spokesperson said, adding three smugglers were arrested.

They also took custody of two motor vehicles and an oil tanker in which the hashish had been concealed in secret chambers, Coast Guards spokesman Major Zafar Ahmed told AFP.

The raiding party had to cut into the tanker with power tools to retrieve the 3,010 kilogrammes of the drug.

"In the history of the PCG, this is the biggest ever seizure of drugs," Ahmed said, adding that the consignment would have been worth around $50 million in the Middle Eastern countries where it was bound.

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Ahmed said one of the men arrested was high on the list of the country's most wanted smugglers, but declined to give the suspects' names.

Pakistan has been a key smuggling route for hashish and heroin, cultivated and processed in the country's tribal regions and neighbouring Afghanistan.

Afghanistan also produces 90 percent of the world's opium supply, an estimated third of which transits through Pakistan.