30 March 2018•Update: 31 March 2018
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
Pakistan’s coastguards have seized a huge cache of drugs from southwestern Balochistan province, an official statement said on Friday.
Acting on a tip-off, coastguards carried out a raid in a mountainous region of strategic Gwadar town -- a key route to multi-billion dollars China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project -- and seized 8,000 kilograms (17,637 pounds) of drugs worth over $90 million in the open market, the statement added.
A video released by Pakistan Coastguards office showed personnel pulling dozens of drug-filled sacks out of a cave in the mountainous region of Gwadar. However, no arrest was reported.
Safeer Mehdi, a spokesman for Pakistan Coastguards, told Anadolu Agency that the seized drugs were supposed to be smuggled into European market via sea route.
With its 600-kilometers long coastline, Gwadar is a key deep seaport currently operated by China, which aims to attain direct access to Indian Ocean via this seaport.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Pakistan is the destination and transit country for approximately 40 percent of the opium produced in neighboring Afghanistan.
Mineral-rich Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is said to be a key transit point for drug trafficking between the two countries.
War-torn Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of illicit opium involving the country’s powerful warlords, and the militant groups, which use the drug money to arm their respective supporters despite the heavy presence of U.S.-led foreign forces for over 16 years.
Scores of small mobile laboratories have reportedly been operating in lawless Pak-Afghan border for opium processing, according to the UNODC.
