KARACHI: The customs officials have confiscated the valuable goods worth Rs 15 million during Tuesday–Wednesday night at Karachi Airport from the custody of two accused coming from Dubai through Emirate Airlines flight EK610.
Giving the details of the goods and accused persons, Asad Raza Rizvi, Additional Collector Customs Airport informed the media that all seven packages were examined by the customs officials which led to the recovery of mobile phones, medicines, memory cards, USBs, Tabs, Mac Books, I-Pads, Laptops, Cameras, Mobile projectors etc in huge quantity which total value is above Rs 15 million. However the accused persons have shown the worth of these goods only worth Rs 5.5 million in their documents
According to Additional Collector Customs, the accused persons were trying to smuggle these goods into the country which may cause a loss of Rs 03 million customs duty and other taxes to the national exchequer.
He said the goods were recovered on credible information received through DCP/JIAP Amjad Aman Lagari. The huge quantity of foreign origin contraband/restricted commercial goods of various commodities would be smuggled into the country through Emirate Airlines flight No. EK610 under guise of personal baggage of some passengers.
Accordingly, the custom staff was deployed to keep strict and incognito vigilance on the movement and clearance of the passengers arriving by the said flights. The flight arrived at about 02.10 hrs and the passengers were cleared under strict watch, in the meantime two passengers later on identified on as Aslam Mengrani and Muhammad Jawaid were suspected using green channel facility and diverted towards scanning machine and their baggage consisted of 07 packages was scanned which indicated the presence of various commercial goods.
All the offending goods were seized along with containers thereof and traveling documents of both the passengers and they were arrested for the violation of Customs Act, 1969. However efforts are under way to arrest the other accomplices behind the scenario. FIR is lodged in the court and remand of both accused persons has been granted by Special Customs Courts.