LAHORE: In the ongoing country-wide operation launched by the Directorate of Customs Intelligence, official teams seized a huge quantity of smuggled cigarettes worth Rs303 million in the last 10 days.

According to official sources, the departmental teams in Punjab seized 1.294 million cigarettes (sticks) worth Rs75.3 million.

In Balochistan, the Customs Intelligence seized 4.280 million sticks of foreign brands of cigarettes, valuing Rs114.2 million. In the province of Sindh, the teams seized 1.4207 million sticks of high-end brands of cigarettes valuing Rs69.7 million, followed by the KPK where 1.155 million sticks worth Rs43.9 million.

“This takes the tally of seizures of smuggled cigarettes by the Customs Intelligence in the current FY 2022-23 to around 34 million sticks valuing Rs1.324 billion. I also appreciate officers concerned of Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Gawadar, Hyderabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar regions for doing such a great job despite having minimal human resource and logistics,” Director General of the Customs Intelligence Department Faiz Ahmad Chadhar said while talking to Dawn.

He said raids against other smuggled goods were underway side by side the crackdown on the cigarettes’ smugglers.

In October, last year, the customs authorities in a raid at a warehouse set up at a private school in Lahore’s Raiwind Road had seized smuggled goods worth Rs856 million.

The goods included fabric, shoes, cosmetics, tools, furniture, toys, crockery and electronics. The recovered goods also included expired cosmetics worth Rs60m.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023