Two Customs officers involved in ‘smuggling, corruption’ arrested

PESHAWAR: Two Customs officers have been arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over their alleged involvement in smuggling and corruption, ARY News reported on Monday.

The FIA Anti-Corruption Circle Peshawar conducted a raid and arrested two Customs officers.

According to the FIA spokesperson, the arrested officers including Muhammad Ali and Sunil Kumar were involved in smuggling mobile phones and electronic gadgets.

The smuggled goods caused a financial loss worth Rs8.8 million to the exchequer.

The accused officers were arrested after the cancellation of their pre-arrest bail by the Special Court Central Peshawar.

In August, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had made revelations in the smuggling case as Customs officers were found involved in purchasing gold bricks from ‘speed money’ or bribery.

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.