PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa excise, taxation and narcotics control department has arrested one person and recovered 0.2 million ‘black-coated’ US dollar notes from his possession, an official statement read.

Additional SHO excise police station Azlan said that the dollars were chemically treated and coloured in black, adding, “they [smugglers] do this to hide the currency’s identity so that if caught, nobody recognised them”.

He stated that a special chemical was used for restoring them. “These are mostly coloured in black. Once the amount reaches its destination, it is dipped into a chemical and then you find the real dollars,” Mr Azlan told Dawn, adding that the accused person had purchased the dollars from Hayatabad for Rs140 million and was transporting the foreign currency to Mardan.

A statement issued by the excise department said that the department was conducting operations against money laundering, drug smuggling and other illegal activities.

“While conducting a major operation against money laundering and drug smuggling, the excise police recovered 200,000 black [chemically treated] US dollars from a vehicle on the Ring Road,” the statement said, adding the accused and recovered dollars were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency for further legal action and investigation.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2023