ANF foils international heroin-smuggling bid

KARACHI: Acting on a tip off, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Sindh conducted an operation at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Saturday, successfully foiling an attempt to smuggle over 17 kilograms of heroin to Italy.

The ANF arrested one passenger and two others who are being interrogated.

The passenger had boarded an early morning Qatar Airways flight QR-605 from Karachi. Two of his accomplices, employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) helped the smuggling bid by switching the passengers decoy luggage with heroin filled suitcases in the apron area prior to the bags being loaded onto the Boeing 777 aircraft.

The deed was done; the aircraft was on the tarmac taxiing for take-off, carrying in its belly $680,000* worth of heroin in the international wholesale market (street value, over $1.15 million).

Already wise to the smuggling bid, ANF officials ordered the aircraft to be stopped just in time and instructed it to return for security inspection.
According to ANF sources, the passenger as well as the two PIA employees have been arrested and are currently being interrogated. Meanwhile the ANF is conducting raids across the country to apprehend the remaining individuals of the gang.

*value calculated using UNODC data for 2010.