Man held trying to smuggle 1kg heroin at Islamabad airport

ISLAMABAD: Authorities at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport foiled on Tuesday a bid to smuggle contraband out of the country. 

Officials of the Airport Security Force (ASF) said the suspected smuggler, identified as Fazal Wahid, was transporting 1kg of heroin outside the country. 

ASF officials said the drugs, ice to be specific, was hidden inside a bag containing oranges.  

Wahid was heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on a private airlines' flight. Investigations against him are now under way, said officials. 

Crystal methamphetamine, more popularly known by its street names Ice and Glass, consists of colourless crystals of varying sizes and shapes that are used by smoking, insufflations and injecting into one’s body.

Authorities frequently bust bids to smuggle drugs to Saudi Arabia. 

On October 5, ASF officials seized 786 grams of ice heroin from a passenger at the Islamabad airport. 

They said Islam Gul, a resident of Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was travelling to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from a private airline.

Exactly a week from that, media reports had stated that the ASF had foiled another heroin smuggling bid at the airport.

The suspect, identified as Lal Bahadur and hailing from Mardan, was travelling to Riyadh through a private airlines' flight. A kilogramme of ice was recovered from him.

In September this year, ASF foiled a bid to smuggle one kilogram of ice heroin from the same airport. The suspect, too, was travelling to Saudi Arabia.