KARACHI: MCC Preventive AFU foiled a bid to smuggle abroad gold worth millions and foreign currency at Jinnah International Airport.
According to details, Deputy Collector Amjad Arman Leghari had information that huge quantity of gold and currency would be smuggled out of country by a group of three Pakistani passengers.
The information was duly communicated to the staff at international departure Jinnah International Airport. Three passengers were spotted travelling together indentified as Syed Nasir, Faisal Bin Suleman and Rashid Iqbal. The suspected passengers bound for Dubai crossed the Customs currency declaration counter without making any declaration and also passed the ASF scanning machines without any sort of detection.
They were stopped at Customs examination counter. Prior to examination they were asked to declare if they were carrying any contrabands such as gold or currency etc. to which they all replied in negative. Detailed examination of luggage and personal search resulted in recovery of 24k gold chains weighing 3015 grams.
The assorted foreign currency worth $0.152 million and gold chains worth $0.123 million was seized and the accused passengers were arrested. An FIR to this effect is lodged and investigations are underway.
It may be mentioned here that Pakistan customs is pursuing a rigorous anti-smuggling campaign. Chief Collector Enforcement South Mohammad Zahid Khokhar has advised all the formations to keep strict vigilance on the movement of goods including air passengers to foil any attempt of smuggling. Collector Saifuddin Jenejo and Additional Collector Asad Raza Rizvi have directed strict monitoring of air passengers to check smuggling out of gold and foreign currency.