ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Customs has seized 130 kilogrammes of heroin from a truck on the Torkham border, which the department says is the “largest quantity” of narcotics ever seized in the organization’s history.
In a statement on Thursday, customs officials said the value of the recovered drugs in the international market was more than Rs1.5 billion.
Detailing the recovery, Chief Collector Customs Peshawar Ahmad Raza Khan told the Express Tribune newspaper the recovery was made during an operation at Torkham’s import terminal.
“They found the narcotics from the hidden compartments of a truck, number KBL-3763,” Khan said, adding that the vehicle had been impounded and the driver, identified as Sharif Khan, was in custody.
The chief collector customs said the department had received intelligence reports of an international drug mafia network attempting to smuggle the heroin into Pakistan in an imported container.
Soon after, a team of customs personnel was formed under the Additional Collector Muhammad Tayyab to conduct the raid, Khan added.
In the last 16 days, drugs worth Rs3.23 billion have been seized at the Torkham border, he said.
On Wednesday, customs officials seized more than 100kg of heroin from a truck, and took the driver into custody. They said the value of drugs in the international market was over one billion rupees.
Moreover, the Customs Department of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) foiled a bid to smuggle urea fertilizer worth millions of rupees to Afghanistan. Officials confiscated the vehicle and the commodity that was being smuggled in potato sacks through Chaman.
