Karachi: Pakistan’s anti-drug force seized a big cache of hashish that was concealed in a warehouse in a town near the port so that it could be smuggled abroad, official sources said.
Anti Narcotics Force (ANF), the state-run organisation, hauled some 10 tonnes of hashish from the warehouse in Maripur town which houses the largest shipment containers terminal.
ANF carried a crackdown on the place on a tip-off by an informer. However, no one was arrested from the place and investigations were going on to locate the owner of the warehouse.
The ANF sources said that the hashish was stored in the warehouse with the purpose of smuggling it abroad.
This is the second largest haul within a couple of days as the authorities discovered pouches of some five kilograms of heroin which were hidden inside the toilet of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane.
The flight was bound to London but the smuggling attempt was foiled before the aircraft flew off to its destination.
Local newspapers on Saturday reported that British Customs authorities intercepted a flight attendant of PIA at the Heathrow Airport whereas it let the rest of the staff go. The male member of cabin crew was interrogated at the airport for hours. A PIA spokesman said that he was later allowed to go. Pakistan has been one of the lucrative routes of the heroin and other opium-based drugs smuggling as they are sown, grown and processed in neighbouring Afghanistan.
ANF statistics show that in January alone 1096 kilograms of heroin was hauled in Chagai district of Balochistan not far from Afghan border.
Traffickers carry smaller quantities of heroin in capsules or other concealed chambers in their luggage. During a routine ANF check at Peshawar, the force detained a passenger at the airport who was carrying 120 filled capsules in his abdomen.
In Karachi, during different crackdowns the ANF seized 151 kg; 13.5 kg; and 58 kg in the month of January. Some 13 kg heroin was also captured in eastern city of Lahore.
The cumulative worth of the seized heroin comes to 1 billion rupees (Dh67.6 million) in the international market.
