Customs authorities have seized over 14,000 bottles of foreign liquor after a raid on a boat here on Friday night. A wooden launch from port of Fujairah (UAE) making a bid to enter our territory was seized, said Muhammed Javed Ghani, Collector Customs, while talking to newsmen here on Saturday afternoon.
He said anti-Smuggling Organisation (ASO) of the Model Customs Collectorate of Preventive was constituted to launch the operation. The information was also shared with the Maritime Security Agency (MSA), he added. MSA, as an integral part of the overall strategy, deployed its assets to barricade and cordon all coastal inlets along the Mekran Coast.
On March 29, last the ASO core team launched the operation on receipt of a go ahead signal from superiors. The team commenced surveillance in the high seas alongside the coast from Sonmiani to Gadani. As the operation progressed, another team was detailed as backup to the core team. Resultantly, on April 7, the core team succeeded in spotting and identifying the offending launch laden with huge quantity of liquor near Churna Island.
The launch was signalled to stop, but instead, its crew tried to escape. It was chased and intercepted after exchange of fire. The crew fled away in the speedboat, abandoning the launch and its illegal cargo, which was then seized, culminating in one of the most successful operations in history. The launch containing 14,196 bottles of assorted whisky 1,583 cases containing 38,000 tins/cans of assorted beer was seized.
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