Seven held for smuggling donkey hides to China

Confiscated items used to make donkey-hide gelatine, an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine ‘ejiao’

Police have busted seven members of a gang, including a Chinese national, involved in smuggling donkey hides to China. The accused have been handed over to the Pakistan Customs for further legal proceedings.

Sharea Faisal Sub-Inspector Asim said on Wednesday that they had received information that a gang involved in the smuggling of donkey hides was operating out of Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Acting on the information, SI Asim led a raiding party to the locality’s house No G-621A in Block 12 and detained seven people, including a woman and a Chinese national.

Asim said that during the search of the house, they confiscated 592 bags containing hides of donkeys, adding that the accused were taken to the police station for further legal action.

The police investigation revealed that the donkey hides were transported from Lahore to Karachi, from where they were supposed to be smuggled to China.

The accused were identified as Tu Zhong Xiao, Afshan, her husband Ehtasham, Muhammad Daniyal, driver Muhammad Jumman, helper Muhammad Faisal and loader Zeeshan.

SI Asim said the Chinese national was responsible for investment and transportation of consignments, adding that Afshan negotiated between parties. “She dealt with the Chinese and a trader named Farooq Memon, who provided rates to parties for booking. Afshan’s husband is a partner.”

The police official said Jumman transported the hides from Lahore, and with the help of an associate named Rafi shifted the transported hides to various warehouses across Karachi and Lahore through a company named H Cargos.

He added that other accomplices yet to be arrested were identified as Muzaffar Abidi – the main dealer who dealt with H Cargos at the Cantt Station and maintains contact with Chinese firms to shift the hides to various warehouses in Karachi and Lahore – and Abidi’s partner Memon, who shifted the hides from Lahore to various stations through the H Courier Company and delivered them to various warehouses with the help of his manager Rafi.

The accused Rafi looked after all the dealings, paid rent to the truck drivers and also hired warehouses for the purpose, added SI Asim.

He said the raiding police party had recovered 592 bags of donkey hides and each bag contained around eight hides, bringing the total of the confiscated hides to 4,736, adding that the cost of the recovered hides in the international market was around Rs118.4 million, as the cost of every hide was estimated to be about Rs25,000.

The SI said the seven accused were arrested under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), while the hides were seized under Section 550 of the CrPC, adding that the accused were later handed over to the Pakistan Customs Department, along with the confiscated hides, because the police could not investigate such crimes.

He said the hides were being exported in large numbers to China to produce donkey-hide gelatine, which was used as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine named “ejiao”, adding that the medicine was beneficial in treating a blood disease, which was why the demand for donkey hides had increased phenomenally in China.