QUETTA: Custom authorities in Quetta's Kuchlak area on Saturday claimed foiling a major bid of narcotics smuggling inside the country.
Customs personnel seized more than 400 kilograms of heroin and 27 kilograms of opium in a successful raid near Kuchlak and some 25 kilometres northwest of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.
Collector Customs Balochistan Zahoor Akhtar Raja told Dawn that acting on a tip-off, a truck was intercepted near Kuchlak and a huge quantity of narcotics was seized.
He said two men were also arrested during the raid.
"We are interrogating both men," Raja said.
The men were identified as residents of Pakistan's volatile region of Wana. Raja stated that the value of the seized narcotics was around five billion rupees in the international market.
"The accused were trying to smuggle the heroin to different parts of the country," Raja said.
Balochistan is considered a transit route for drug smugglers who use frequented and unfrequented routes in the province to smuggle narcotics to Gulf States and Iran which are then to be transported to Europe. It borders with Afghanistan's volatile province Helmand, which comes on top when it comes to opium production the world over.
