Hi Everyone! I hope you are all doing well. Welcome back to another blog. This article will discuss the topic in detail “Authorities Confiscate Large Quantities of Sugar and Urea Crackdown on Smuggling”. Smuggling, particularly of essential goods such as sugar and urea, has been a longstanding struggle for Pakistan. Illegal trade not only undermines the government’s efforts to regulate prices but also has a negative impact on the economy. The government has implemented several measures to address this issue. These measures include conducting raids on suspected smugglers, monitoring markets, and enforcing border control.
The Prime Minister directed a crackdown on smuggling essential items from Pakistan to neighboring countries. Faiz Ahmad, Director General of Intelligence and Investigation – Customs, Islamabad, provided credible information that a significant amount of Pakistan-origin fertilizer urea and sugar was dumped in various locations in and around Khuzdar City. The smugglers intended to transport these items from Balochistan to Afghanistan.
Under the leadership of Dr. Tahir Qureshi, Director of the Directorate of I&I – Customs, Gaddani, the operations were conducted in collaboration with officials from the Regional office in Quetta. Additionally, the Regional office deputed Moeen Afzal Ali, Additional Director, to execute the operation. The primary objective of the operation was to seize essential items from various dumping sites.
Majid Hussain Gaad, Assistant Director, led the Customs Intelligence team with assistance from Frontier Corps, Kalat Scouts at Khuzdar, district administration, and police. Together, they searched the farmhouse of a local smuggler and found 26,407 bags of fertilizer urea and 8,209 bags of sugar on the premises.
The Agriculture & Cooperatives Department, Government of Balochistan issued a Standard Operating Procedure against the hoarding, illegal transport, and smuggling of essential items. However, the owner of the premises could not provide the necessary documents to prove the legality of the goods stored there. As a result, the local authorities sealed the premises and handed over the seized goods to the police for safekeeping.
The Joint Team arrived at the Arbab Complex, a local market, where they found shops that were being used for illegal hoarding of essential items with the intent to smuggle them out of Pakistan. The owners of the shops at the market resisted the team’s attempts to access the premises. However, the team persisted and, with the assistance of local elders, they were able to negotiate and disperse the crowd, gaining access to the shops. In doing so, they successfully pursued the third part of the Intel.
The security personnel secured the shopping complex. They conducted a thorough search of each shop. The search yielded the recovery of 22,978 bags of sugar and 2,646 bags of fertilizer. Subsequently, they seized the entire stock under the relevant provisions of the laws.
Customs Intelligence Baluchistan seized 2,200 bags of urea fertilizer and 10,000 bags of sugar in two separate operations. The operations took place at Gadani and Noshki in the past few days.
The Customs Intelligence has seized 41,883 bags of urea fertilizer with a market value of Rs. 167.532 million and 44,957 bags of sugar with a market value of Rs. 224.785 million during their ongoing operations against the smuggling of essential commodities.
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