Islamabad, May 06: Pakistani customs authorities have made the country's largest-ever drug seizure following a gunfight with smugglers in the remote southwestern hills, the state news agency reported today. The authorities seized 1,350 kg of heroin worth US$500 million on the international market, customs official Abdul Wahid Marwat was reported as having told a news conference today. The drugs were hidden in a gorge in the Sulaiman mountains in Chagai, the remote district where Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in 1998, the reports said. Customs officials were investigating a tip that smugglers had hidden heroin brought in from neighboring Afghanistan when gunmen started shooting at them, the report said. Customs and smugglers guarding the cache exchanged fire until the smugglers eventually fled into the hills, Marwat said. The drugs were packed in plastic bags, each containing one kilogram of heroin, the report said. Customs officials were continuing investigations to catch the smugglers, he added. Pakistan's border regions are a key smuggling route for drugs coming out of Afghanistan, which is expected to be the world's no. 1 opium producer this year with a harvest of more than 4,000 tons. A preliminary survey of 134 districts of Afghanistan, carried out in March by both the United Nations and the Afghan anti-narcotics division, showed a rise in poppy production even in areas not previously known for the crop.

Bureau Report