LAHORE: The Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling handed over two accused persons to the Customs Investigation and Prosecution (I&P) team for two days on physical remand. Both of the accused were arrested from a godown located near Mochi Gate area of Lahore on charges of smuggling of different items.
On 25.10.2018, both accused persons who were later identified as Ashraf and Aftab were produced before the court where customs team sought remand of accused for further interrogations. Customs court granted two days remand of accused.
Earlier Collectorate of Customs Preventive Anti-Smuggling Organization (ASO) recovered huge quantity of non-customs paid goods from a godown inside Mochi Gate.
Sources told that Additional Collector Tayyaba Kiyani received information that huge quantity of smuggled goods is dumped in a godown situated inside Mochi Gate so made a team to raid the area. The team recovered Ratna tobacco, Amla, naswar, cigarettes, Zafrani tobacco, Milano, Marlboro, Dunhill, Benson & Hedges packs. The market value of seized goods is Rs70 million.
Customs anti-smuggling squad asked the persons who were present on the spot to produce legal documents regarding storage and import of these goods but they failed to provide any relevant legal documents. Upon their failure, ASO team registered a case against the owner of the goods and started further investigations in this regard.
It is necessary to mention here that Customs Anti-Smuggling Organization Additional Collector Tayyaba Kiyani directed all anti-smuggling squads to adopt zero tolerance policy towards smuggling. She directed that anyone found involved in smuggling should be dealt with iron hands.
