Seizure of smuggled items: Multi-pronged strategy to break big smuggling cartels adopted

ISLAMABAD: The Central Region (Enforcement & Compliance) of Pakistan Customs has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to break big smuggling cartels by conducting anti-smuggling operations, raids on big warehouses storing smuggled goods, strict vigilance on roads/highways, monitoring of markets and surveys on scientific lines using IT-tools to gauge the volume of illegal trade.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that a major increase in seizure of the smuggled items has been witnessed by all three Model Customs Collectorates of the Central Region during 2019-20 following new anti-smuggling strategy and enforcement plan.

In line with the declared policy of zero tolerance to the menace of smuggling by the Prime Minister, the Central Region (Enforcement & Compliance) of Pakistan Customs has geared up its anti-smuggling drive under the leadership of the Chief Collector Faiz Ahmed who is well known for his proactive and firm approach towards effective enforcement.

During the course of last financial year all three Model Customs Collectorates foiled a large number of attempts to smuggle various items from and into the country at the airports and similarly a huge quantity of smuggled goods was seized while making its way to the central part of the country from Balochistan and KP.

Moreover, the large warehouses used to receive, store and distribute the smuggled goods were also raided and all such goods were seized according to the law.

According to sources, Model Customs Collectorate (E&C) of Lahore besides keeping strict vigilance on roads to interdict the movement of smuggled goods carried out many successful anti-smuggling operations in which smuggled goods including betel nuts, cigarettes, auto parts, tyres, tiles, mobile phones, vehicles etc. worth Rs 1.97 billion were seized. The value of the goods seized by the same Anti-Smuggling Organisation (ASO) during the last financial year was Rs 1.05 billion which means this year the performance in terms of anti-smuggling has registered a growth of around 90%. The anti-smuggling drive took the momentum especially during the last quarter of the 2019-20 when not only information based operations were conducted and big godowns in various parts and around the city of Lahore were raided but the movement of smuggled goods was also checked vigorously by apprehending the containers/trucks carrying smuggled goods.

Sources said the operations were planned meticulously and executed with surgical precision which resulted in seizure of huge quantities of smuggled goods. The value of the goods seized by the ASO during the period March-June 2020 was Rs 1174 million while the figures for the corresponding period of the year 2019 was Rs 420 million depicting an increase of around 180 percent.

Soon after taking over the command of the Central Region in the last quarter of the 2019-20, the new Chief Collector Faiz Ahmed held meetings, visited offices and provided clear and valuable guidelines to all the officers for devising and executing result oriented strategies to curb the trade of smuggled goods.

On his specific directions surveys on scientific lines were started by using modern IT tools to gauge the volume of this illegal trade in the Central Region more accurately. These innovative techniques have started producing the desired results in the shape of disruption of trade of smuggled goods and breakage of a few big smuggling cartels.

Authorities acknowledged that the rapid increase in the volume of smuggled goods seized by Enforcement and Compliance Central Region of Customs during the last quarter of 2019-20 is a clear indication of the commitment, hard work and objective approach on part of Faiz Ahmed and his team towards achievement of the objective of making the Customs Central Region a smuggling free zone.

Model Customs Collectorate Multan has affected the seizures of worth Rs 2.87 billion during the 2019-20 while the figure on the same account for the previous year was Rs 1.83 billion therefore an increase of 55 percent. The Ssuggled goods seized include cloth, oil products, vehicles, tyres, betel nuts, etc.

Model Customs Collectorate of Allama Iqbal International Airport thwarted many attempts to smuggle foreign currency, gold and other contrabands out of the country, while some contrabands including alcohol were seized when the same were being brought into the country illegally. The value of the goods seized at the airport during 2019-20 was Rs 200 million.

In all the aforementioned cases, warranted FIRs were also lodged and prosecution was initiated.

The Central Region of Customs Enforcement is currently executing both preventive and striking strategies to deal with the movement of smuggled goods into its territorial jurisdiction. For effective surveillance of strategically located entry and exit points regular patrolling is being carried out.

Despite the shortage of requisite staff all the main arteries leading towards big markets of the region are kept under watch to thwart the attempts of bringing in the smuggled goods. Due to effective surveillance the smugglers have shifted their storage dens to the smaller areas which in a way is also increasing the cost of smuggling for them.

Moreover through an efficient network of informers the list of private godowns used for storage and distribution of smuggled goods is constantly being updated and whenever an information is received about presence of smuggled goods in those godown is received the operation is launched after fulfillment of due legal formalities. Where needed the necessary support from other law enforcement agencies including Police is also secured.

For this purpose the mechanism of Divisional Task Force on Anti-Smuggling established under the directives of the Office of the Prime Minister is utilized effectively, they added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020