The Lahore Customs Intelligence, in a massive operation, seized smuggled goods as well as duty and tax evasion worth Rs3.8 billion and Iranian petrol worth Rs636 million in the last six months.

The Customs Lahore Directorate conducted raids against smugglers on the directions of Customs Director General (Intelligence) Chaudhry Faiz Ahmed. From October to December 2023, the Customs lodged 235 seizure cases against smugglers, 115 non-customs paid vehicles, and Rs8 million cigarettes, while auto parts, home appliances, and tyres worth crores were also seized.

As per data, the worth of the seized goods was 15% higher than the same period of the last financial year quarter, which wasRs2.9 billion.

In terms of revenue, Rs56 million were earned in the form of revenue, which is 200 per cent more than the last half year, Rs300 million were earned in the form of the auction of vehicles and various items, duty, taxes—which is 32 per cent higher than the previous half.

Actions against non-custom paid vehicles

As many as 115 non-customs paid vehicles worth Rs982 million were seized while 88 vehicles worth Rs657 million were seized in the same half of last year.

Action against Iranian petrol smuggling

A record was set by seizing eight million cigarettes, while 2.2 million cigarettes were seized in the last half while 2,114,510 litres of Iranian petrol and diesel worth Rs636 million were also seized.

A large number of 576 mobile phones and home appliances were also seized along with smuggled auto parts, tyres, cloth, dry fruit, bark, glass flavour, shoes and garments.

Operations against smugglers were carried out under the supervision of Additional Director Customs Intelligence Rizwan Bashir Kaleer. Superintendent Rai Waqar, Superintendent Muhammad Mubeen, Intelligence Officer Ehtesham Naveed, Gulzar Bhatti, Asif Jakhar, Akmal Shahzad, Sepoy Syed Amir Shabbir.

Talking to SAMAA, Customs Director (Intelligence) Haris Ansari said that despite fewer resources, their teams caught 15 per cent more smuggled goods than in the previous half and lodged 235 cases against the smugglers.

Additional Director Customs Intelligence Ch Rizwan Bashir Kaleer said that the department carried out major operations against smugglers with the help of police, the Intelligence Bureau and other agencies.

He said operations were carried out without any pressure on the safe havens of smugglers, which yielded substantial results.

He added a large smuggling network was caught and smugglers were arrested operating under the guise of Afghan transit trade.