Passengers with 1,645 mobile phones held at Rawalpindi airport

Suspects had arrived from Dubai when customs officials recovered cellphones worth Rs20 million from their possession

RAWALPINDI: Customs officials on Saturday recovered 1,645 mobile phones of various brands and 10,700 memory cards from four passengers returning from Dubai at Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Rawalpindi.

Based on information by collector customs, Muhammad Ejaz Inspector vigilance wing conducted a search and recovered mobile phones worth Rs20 million along with thousands of memory cards from the luggage of four suspected smugglers.



The suspects were identified as Muhammad Faisal Memon (Karachi), Nazeer Abdullah (Karachi), Waqar Umar (Kohat) and
Nazeer Abdullah (Kohat). FIRs have been lodged against the suspects at Thana investigation and Prosecution Branch, Model Customs Collectorate (MCC), Islamabad.



In January, the Pakistan Customs Preventive team recovered more than 100 mobile phones from a passenger returning from Dubai at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.



Muhammad Ali Shah, arriving from Dubai through flight EK-600, had 105 cellphones tied to his waist, said media officer customs Irfan Ali.

The mobile phones were concealed on the passenger’s body in an apparent bid to smuggle them to Karachi from United Arab Emirates.