Huge cache of narcotics seized at Karachi airport

KARACHI: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Sindh, claimed on Tuesday to have foiled a smuggling bid from Karachi to outside the country.

The ANF officials said they seized high-quality narcotics during a raid at the airport’s Jinnah Terminal while the contraband was being smuggled to Saudi Arabia and Dubai via a shipment.



The narcotics were hidden in marble decorated material, said the ANF spokesperson. The seized narcotics include 4.6 kilogrammes of heroin and 8.9 kilogrammes of crystal. The spokesperson further said that one of the suspects was also taken into custody while further investigation is under way.

In July, Customs authorities at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport recovered 20 kilogrammes of heroin from a UK-bound passenger.

The customs officials, in a press release, said that they stopped Muhammad Wasim, a British passport holder, as he was about to board  a flight bound for London.



The drugs were packed in small plastic bags that were concealed in stitches between clothes and embroidery.

They said that the heroin could be located only after close search.

The customs officials further noted that the passenger was cleared by Airport Security Force (ASF) at their counter.

In May, customs officials in Karachi recovered over 27kg heroin from a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft during an intelligence-based raid.



Officials conducted the raid at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, and seized nine packets of heroin from the lavatory of a Europe-bound aircraft parked in the hangar.

“It is an unfortunate incident and the airline’s management is extending full cooperation to investigating agencies in addition to conducting its own inquiry,” a PIA spokesperson said in a statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2016.