‘Drug traffickers possibly using PIA to smuggle narcotics’

Aviation authorities begin probe into how the drugs might be making their way on to the planes of the national carrier

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) says it is taking steps to guarantee its fleet of air crafts are not being used to transport contraband following the revelation that heroin was found on two of its London-bound planes, according to the BBC.

Aviation authorities have begun a probe into how the drugs might be making their way on to the planes of the national carrier.

On May 15, UK's Border Force officials impounded a PIA flight en route from Islamabad on arrival at London Heathrow Airport and searched it for several hours.

The National Crime Agency later said that heroin had been found hidden in different panels of the plane.

There were also suggestions that the British authorities had acted on a tip-off from Pakistan.



No-one was charged. The pilot was allowed to return back to the country the very next day, while crew members were given their passports back also a day later.

The incident led to considerable embarrassment for PIA.

Then on May 22, officials at the Islamabad airport seized more than 20kg of the very same drug from another aircraft headed to Heathrow.

Investigations were launched to identify suspects within the PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) with possible links to a drug trafficking ring that may have been using PIA to smuggle the drug abroad, Mashhood Tajwar, a PIA spokesman, told the BBC.

The investigation is being conducted by a team of officials from airport security, customs and the anti-narcotics force.

Tajwar said pre-flight searches of air crafts had been a part of standard operating procedures in the past, but surveillance had been stepped up since the May incident at Heathrow.

On Friday, a high-level meeting presided by the prime minister's adviser on aviation, Mehtab Ahmad Khan, finalised new security measures and a Central Operational Committee headed by the CAA chief was constituted to oversee their implementation.



This is not the first time drugs have been found on PIA planes.

Last December, 17kg of heroin was seized by officials at Karachi airport from a plane being readied for a flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The flight was delayed for over 11 hours as a result.

Pre-flight checks are part of routine procedure and sniffer dogs are regularly used to clear aircraft for operations, PIA officials say.

But the presence of heroin on some aircraft shows that officials responsible for such checks may either have been complacent or linked to drug mules among employees.

While poppy crops across Pakistan have largely been eliminated, it is still grown in large parts of southern Afghanistan where insurgent groups wield influence and officials have little power.

Analysts say poppy and heroin are among the main sources of income for these groups.