PIA employee smuggling cell phones worth Rs25m arrested at airport

Karachi
An employee of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) who was trying to smuggle a huge cache of cell phones and contraband liquor to Karachi was arrested by the customs officials posted at the Jinnah International Airport Karachi.
A spokesman for the Pakistan Custom Preventive officials posted at the airport said credible information had been received that an attempt will be made to smuggle large amounts of foreign contraband mobile phones and liquor on a PIA domestic flight PK-502 arriving from Turbat with the active connivance of airline staff.
Sources revealed that the aircraft PK-502 had been originally deployed on the Sharjah–Turbat Sector and was later used to transport passengers to Karachi.
In light of the information, a team of customs officers was set up to carry out discrete surveillance on crew members and passengers, and the baggage they brought to the arrival lounge of Jinnah International Airport.
During surveillance, a passenger later identified as Fida Hussain was observed carrying a black trolley bag without the mandatory claim tag in the domestic arrival lounge. Scrutiny of his documents revealed that Fida Hussain was PIA Baggage Attendant (PIA Card No 48129) who had flown to Karachi from Turbat on PK-502 on seat no 5A, as mentioned on his boarding card. Preliminary inquiries from the passenger raised a red flag when his trolley bag was searched, nine bottles of liquor were found inside it.
However, the customs officials continued their surveillance and found seven more assorted trolley bags lying abandoned on the conveyor belt. When no one came forward to claim the ownership of the bags, Fida Hussain was asked whether they belonged to him and he couldn’t give a satisfactory reply. Since credible information was already available with the customs officials, all the bags were confiscated and upon their search they were found to contain at least 1,264 mobile phones of different models, worth a total of Rs25.2 million.
Fida Hussain was arrested and an FIR was lodged in the court of Special Judge Customs and Taxation in Karachi, following which a remand was also obtained for 10 days. In the past few months, customs preventive staff at the Karachi airport have seized considerable amount of mobile phones, gold jewellery, medicines and other merchandise worth millions of rupees.