GILGIT: Pakistan Customs officials on Monday foiled an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of Chinese alcohol at the Sost dry port in Hunza.

During customs clearance of imported consignment from China at the dry port, customs officials recovered 4,800 bottles of liquor of different Chinese brands and 99 walkie talkie sets along with accessories from imported consignments worth millions of rupees.

The smuggled items were concealed in plywood bundles.

According to a press release, in pursuance of credible information that an attempt would be made to smuggle a huge quantity of Chinese origin liquor by some unscrupulous elements in the garb of consignments pertaining to CPEC projects, the checking of all consignments imported from China through the Khunjerab Pass was tightened.

During routine checking on Monday deputy collector customs observed that packing of six plywood bundles seemed suspicious.

A team of custom officials was immediately constituted to carry out detailed examination of the said consignment.

Upon examination of the consignment it transpired that Chinese origin alcohol was concealed by the importer inside the plywood bundles.

The alleged smugglers were identified as Chinese citizens, owners of M/S Sheng Tong International Trading (Pvt) Ltd, and a case had been registered against them under various sections of the Customs Act, 1969.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2018