KARACHI: The Collectorate of Customs Enforcement Karachi has seized a huge quantity of smuggled Indian-origin medicines worth Rs. 10.3 billion, initiating investigation against two pharmaceutical companies.
Speaking at a press conference held at Customs House on Tuesday, Collector Enforcement Moinuddin Wani said that the Collectorate had made historic seizure in the region as over 21 million tablets and around 7000 capsules of smuggled Tramadol were recovered from a warehouse located in the Korangi Industrial Area.
He said that action was taken on a tip-off that led to the recovery of a massive cache of high-dosage Tramadol, an opioid painkiller regulated in Pakistan and known for misuse in illicit drug markets.
Customs seizes Rs250m of contraband medicines
The seized drugs lacked Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) registration numbers, indicating they were either smuggled through mis-declaration or manufactured illegally using imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients.
The market value of recovered drugs is estimated to be Rs. 10.63 billion, making it one of the largest pharmaceutical seizures in the history of Pakistan in particular and in the region in general.
Furthermore, he said that the initial course of investigation revealed that some of the recovered cartons bear markings indicating India as the country of origin, and being mis-declared as vaccines, pointing towards a cross-border smuggling network.
Moreover, he said that the test results of the samples, forwarded to Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), confirmed that the seized goods are Tramadol Hydrochloride, adding that the Collectorate had identified the involvement of two pharmaceutical companies and further investigation is underway to trace the supply chain and identify key operatives behind this racket.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.