KARACHI: Under the direct supervision of Director-General, Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) Faiz Ahmad Chadhar, Customs I&I has further beefed up its ongoing crackdown against smuggled cigarettes.
According to the details, during the last 24 hours, four operations in three regions have been conducted. Two operations were carried out by Customs Intelligence, Karachi in the wee hours of 7.6.2023, the First one near Bolton Market in which 250,000 sticks of foreign origin cigarette valuing Rs10.0 million have been seized.
In the second operations in Karachi, 400,000 sticks of high-end brands of cigarettes valuing Rs25.0 million have been seized in Karachi Saddar area.
Earlier, on yesterday evening i.e. 6.6.2023, intelligence-based operations were also carried out at Multan and Dera Ismael Khan where Customs Intelligence seized 1,050,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valuing Rs40 million and 40,000 sticks of smuggled cigarette valuing Rs4.8 million respectively.
The smuggled cigarettes seized in the said four operations at Karachi, Multan and D.I. Khan were of different brands including Pine Mini, Dunhill, Inhale, Benson & Hedges, Speed Blue and Royal Business.
Taken altogether, Customs Intelligence has seized 1,780,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes valuing Rs79 million in last 24 hours. This takes the tally of seizures of smuggled by the Customs Intelligence in the current FY2022-23 to 39,187,000 sticks valuing Rs1.093 billion.
The Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad appreciated the efforts of Director-General Faiz Ahmad against sale of smuggled cigarettes. He also lauded efforts of Customs Intelligence Karachi, DI Khan, and Peshawar and encouraged them to make more efforts to check the menace of smuggling in general and of cigarettes in particular.
