The State Banking Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during a crackdown against hawala/hundi operators arrested three suspects allegedly involved in dealing in illegal currency.
FIA officials on the directives of the Karachi Zone FIA Director Zaheem Iqbal Sheikh under the supervision of Deputy Director State Bank Circle Karachi Ilyas Mehar conducted a raid based on confidential information in Jamshed Town and arrested three suspects.
According to an FIA spokesperson, large amounts of local and foreign currencies was seized, indicating the involvement of these individuals in illegal hawala transactions. The spokesperson said the suspects included Asif, Hafiz Faheem, and Imran Adamani. The FIA team also seized 10 million Iranian riyals, 8,946 Saudi riyals, and 1,280 UAE dirhams, along with large sums of Omani riyals, Canadian dollars, and over 700,000 Pakistani rupees. During the raid, evidence, including messages related to hawala transactions, were recovered from their mobile phones.
Raids are underway to apprehend other suspects involved in this illicit operation. On Tuesday, the State Banking Circle of the FIA announced that they had apprehended a key suspect involved in illegal currency exchange.
The suspect was taken into custody on Shaheed-e-Millat Road during a crackdown initiated against hawala and hundi operations, following the directive of FIA Director Karachi Zone Zaeem Iqbal Sheikh.
According to the FIA spokesperson, the raid was conducted under the supervision of Deputy Director State Bank Circle Karachi Ilyas Mehar, and during the operation, a significant figure involved in illegal currency exchange was apprehended. The raiding team seized local and foreign currencies valued at over Rs40 million.
The suspect was found to be engaged in illegal hawala/hundi operations and currency exchange without any licence. The seized currencies included $46,370, £11,445 and €6,500. Additionally, the suspect was in possession of 5,720 Australian dollars, 63,985 Saudi riyals, and 52,795 UAE dirhams.
The currencies also included 18,528 Qatari riyals, 36,740 Turkish lira, and 66,890 Thai baht. Among the findings were also a substantial amount of Canadian dollars, 4,200 Malaysian ringgit, 5,288 Chinese yuan, and 4,720 krona.
Moreover, more than 6.4 million Pakistani rupees, 5.4 million Iranian rials, and 5.4 million Iraqi dinars were seized. The suspect also had Indian rupees, and currencies from other countries in his possession.
The spokesperson said that mobile phones, messages related to hawala transactions, and registers of multiple hawala transactions were also confiscated from the suspect. The authorities were not convinced by the suspect's explanation regarding the source of the recovered currency. As a result, the suspect was arrested, and the investigation is now underway. Raids to apprehend other suspects are also in progress.
