ISLAMABAD: A court has awarded 13-year jail term to an international drug baron, Ibrahim Koko, who was fraudulently brought to Pakistan last year.

His two facilitators, who helped in issuance of a fake domicile to him, have also been sentenced to 11 years imprisonment each.

Koko, a Myanmar national, was issued a Pakistani passport by the country’s foreign affairs ministry in Thailand on the basis of a fake domicile issued from Khushab. Later he was brought to Pakistan even though the interior ministry had refused to accept him under the agreement on exchange of criminals.

The disclosure of a scam about illegal transfer of dozens of drug barons to Pakistan from at least two countries over the years and release of convicts brought to the country without completing their jail terms was made by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in March last year.

Koko was born in Yangon, Myanmar, on Nov 14, 1972. At the age of 17 he was taken to Singapore on fake documents by his uncle. He was arrested in 1993 for fake identity and deported to Myanmar.

Later Koko moved to Thailand where he was convicted of drug-related charges. He was brought to Pakistan last year after a fraudulent exercise showing him a Pakistani national. But he was caught by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

During investigation, it was revealed that more than 40 drug traffickers had been illegally brought to Pakistan from Sri Lanka and Thailand. One of them had undertaken 19 foreign visits after coming to Pakistan. The others proceeded abroad for more than once. Only three of them are in jail and most of them are abroad.

All of them were brought to Pakistan under an agreement on exchange of offenders. Under the accord, Pakistani nationals complete a part of their sentence in the country where they are convicted and then are brought to Pakistan to complete the remaining term.

A mafia within the interior ministry in collusion with jail authorities and FIA functionaries facilitated them to get freed through fraudulent means to get their share out of the drug money.

Koko was convicted on Monday by the special judge central in Islamabad under Sections 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 14 of the Foreign Act. His convicted facilitators are: Naveed Shahzad and Tanvir Hussain.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016