ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: The Special Investigation Cell of the Anti-Narcotics Force in a joint operation with the Saudi Arabian authorities busted an international gang of narcotics smugglers, sources with the ANF told Dawn.

The ANF and the Saudi team jointly carried our two raids in Riyaz and Jeddah and seized hashish and heroin worth over Rs700 million in the international market recently.

The ANF sources said that it was for the first time that the Cell had acted beyond the boundaries of Pakistan as a three-member team went to the Kingdom on the request of the Saudi authorities.

“We were in possession of some vital information about this big consignment of narcotics comprising 1000kg of hashish and 2kg of heroin which we passed on to the Saudi authorities. However, the Saudi authorities sought our help to join them in the investigations and operation and the three-member team was dispatched from Pakistan,” the ANF sources in Islamabad said.

“Subsequently the raids were conducted during the third week of January in which 14 persons, all Saudi nationals, were arrested besides the recovery of 1000kg of hashish, sophisticated weapons and seven vehicles involved in the business,” a senior ANF official told Dawn.

He said that the whole process was a painstaking exercise which involved tracking down the consignment to Saudi Arabia, detection of important links in the Kingdom which were involved in receiving that particular consignment, monitoring of the activities of the suspects and finally the arrest of the culprits.

“The people involved in the narcotic business were very influential in Saudi Arabia which made it even more important to operate discreetly. However, now as they have been arrested and there are very solid evidence of involvement in the crime available, we hope they will not be able to get away with it,” the ANF official said.

He said that the people from whom the 2kg heroin was seized, are of Pakistani origin but are based in the Saudi Arabia for a very long time.

“I hope the investigations in these cases will lead to arrest of other people involved in the narco business in the two countries,” the ANF official said.