Customs officers bought gold bricks from ‘speed money’, reveals FIA

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has made revelations in the smuggling case as Customs officers were found involved in purchasing gold bricks from ‘speed money’ or bribery, ARY News reported on Monday.

The FIA probe found a front man of Customs officer Usman Bajwa involved in converting ill-gotten money into gold. The intelligence agency made startling revelations in a smuggling case involving Customs officers.

The probe documents showed that the accused Customs officers used to purchase gold bricks from the bribery and also transferred the ill-gotten money to Punjab.

It further stated that Usman Bajwa’s sub-ordinate officer Tayyab Khan purchased gold assets worth Rs155 million the convert the whiten the black money.

The documents revealed that Amir Thahem received Rs300 million bribe from the dealers of banned chalia brands and later he used the money for purchasing gold. The bribes were allegedly collected by Shehbaz and Tayyab for Amir and also transported the gold assets.

During the deputation of Customs officer Saqib Saeed, Superintendent Jamal Zia and IO Hassan Sardar were running a smuggling network. Saqib Saeed had established an organised network with the collusion of Imran Noorani for chalia smuggling.

An accused man namely Imran Noorani and his team members were tasked to transport bribes worth millions of rupees twice a month to Saqib Saeed.

The documents showed that the Customs intelligence officers including Saqib Saeed, Usman Bajwa and Amir Thahem established an organised smuggling network. Yawar Abbas, Jamal Zia, Tayyab, Tariq Bhutto, Anwaar Farooqui, Hassan Sardar, Hafiz Muhammad Younus and Zaheer Cheema were also part of the network.

According to the probe documents, the officers were also receiving bribes for the Iranian diesel smuggling. They used to charge Rs3 per litre for the smuggling of Iranian diesel. Ijaz Butt and Honak Baloch were also found involved in the diesel smuggling network.

Sources told ARY News that Ijaz Butt and Honak Baloch were also influential officers who have been questioned by the FIA. The officers were collecting bribes worth millions of rupees via chalia smuggling on a monthly basis, the documents revealed.