KARACHI: The Pakistan Customs has foiled a bid to smuggle gold and foreign currency to the United Arab Emirates, arresting three passengers at the Jinnah International Airport.
Addressing a joint press conference at the Air Freight Unit (AFU) on Wednesday, Chief Collector, Enforcement South Zahid Khokhar, Collector Collector Preventive Dr Saifuddin Junejo, Additional Collector Asad Raza Rizvi, Deputy Collector (Departures/Arrivlas) Amjad Aman Leghari and SM Irfan said that three passengers were travelling on the intervening night of September 5 or 6, 2016 by Emirates Airlines Flight No EK-65. The suspects, later identified as Syed Nasir, Faisal Bin Suleman and Rashid Iqbal, were allowed to move under secret watch to the customs desk with their collective baggage consisting of two hand bags and three hand trolleys.
At first, they crossed the currency declaring counter established by the customs without voluntary declaration. The passengers were then stopped at the customs examination counter for complete examination after they crossed the ASF checking, scanning and screening counters going unstopped.
Prior to the examination of their baggage, they were repeatedly asked to declare whether they were carrying any contraband goods like gold, currency, etc to which they all replied in negative.
Being dissatisfied with their declaration, their baggage was examined which yielded into the recovery of a huge quantity of assorted foreign currency and gold, they added.
The gold was tied to two of the accused passengers’ waist in form of chains and was also dyed with white chemical to deceive the customs. The contraband gold so recovered and certified by the expert along with all currency and traveling document were seized.
An FIR of the case has been registered against the suspects who are under arrest and further investigation is underway. The total market value of seized gold is Rs 13 million and currency of different denomination in Rs 17.2 million. The total value of the seized gold and currency is Rs 30 million.
