SWABI: In a joint operation, the excise intelligence and district police on Saturday arrested a smuggler and recovered 27 kilogrammes of heroin and eight kilogrammes of charas from his car on Saturday.

When contacted, Jawad Khan, SHO Chota Lahor police station, told Dawn that the arrest of the smuggler along with the contraband was made in light of the information that an attempt would be made to smuggle a large quantity of narcotics to Islamabad by a person while using Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway.

The official said a car bearing government registration number was signalled to stop by the excise staff in the Swabi region of Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway, but he did not stop and sped away.

The excise officials immediately contacted the district police and asked for prompt action against the fleeing drug smuggler.

SHO Jawad Khan and a police party immediately reached the Swabi interchange and chased the car after it did not stop at the police orders.

The SHO said as the driver was having a modern car and was speeding away, the police had no option but to fire at the car tyres to force him to stop the vehicle.

“Finally the car was forced to stop and in the meantime the excise officials also reached the spot.

The arrested smuggler was identified as Jamroz Khan belonging to the Khyber tribal district.

The police recovered 27 kilogrammes of heroin and eight kilogrammes of charas from different sections of the car.

The drug trafficker was shifted to Chota Lahor police station and an FIR was registered against him.

In the preliminary investigation he said that he wanted to smuggle the narcotics to Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2019