ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) recovered 426 kilograms of hashish worth USD 22.4 million from multiple locations inside a private housing society in Mardan, foiling a major Afghanistan-Pakistan drug-trafficking operation.
According to the ANF, the seized drugs had been smuggled from Afghanistan and stored in Mardan with the help of local facilitators, who intended to distribute them nationwide through an organised inter-provincial network once “conditions became favourable.”
ANF spokesperson said the smugglers had transported the narcotics via Tirah and Bara in small consignments, using sophisticated counter-surveillance techniques, compartmentalised communication, and unpredictable routes and timings to avoid detection. Members of the trafficking organisation reportedly avoided mobile-phone communication altogether to minimise digital footprints.
During enhanced ground surveillance, ANF teams noticed suspicious vehicular movement and deployed additional monitoring units on specific routes. Acting on actionable intelligence, the ANF intercepted a vehicle and arrested a suspect carrying a large quantity of hashish. The suspect’s identification led to raids on several houses within the same housing society, resulting in the recovery of the remaining narcotics. In total, 426 kg of hashish and four vehicles were seized, while efforts are underway to arrest the remaining members of the network.
The spokesperson said investigations have revealed that local operatives were using a well-known residential society as a narcotics dumping site, highlighting the scale and sophistication of the transnational trafficking racket. The ANF said that 31 drug networks have been dismantled this year, including seven major organised trafficking groups, underscoring the force’s sustained crackdown on narcotics.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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