Drug-trafficking gang busted, 14 PIA officials held

ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has unearthed a highly organised drug-trafficking network, operating through the flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and arrested 14 persons involved in the heinous crime.

Addressing a press conference here at the ANF headquarters on Friday, ANF Director General Major General Musarrat Nawaz Malik said the arrested accused included both serving and ex-employees of the national flag-carrier, who were arrested from Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

The accused were identified as Akbar alias Badshah, Pervaiz Masih, Pervaiz Alam, Shujat Hussain, Muhammad Saqib, Iqbal Masih, Maqbool Masih, Gopi Darshan, Imran Baig, Waseem Fareedi, Syed Ghulam Yazdani, Saleem Natiq, Saleem Khan and Syed Anwer Shah. The ANF DG said during the last three months, four major cases of drug-trafficking through the PIA flights were detected.

About 15-kg heroin was found hidden in Boeing 777 at Karachi, 11-kg heroin was recovered from a flight at Heathrow Airport, London, 14.7-kg heroin from another Boeing 777 at Benazir Bhutto Airport and 2.4-kg heroin from yet another Boeing 777 aircraft at Karachi Airport.

He said the ANF high-ups took notice of the incidents and the field staff as well as intelligence set-up was directed to focus their efforts towards a thorough scanning of all major airports, besides ensuring scanning of all foreign-bound PIA flights. During investigation, he said different airport departments and stakeholders were approached which included PIA, CAA, ASF and other airport service providers.