LAHORE: Smugglers are using small vehicles for transporting smuggled goods to the markets across Lahore, a credible source said.
It may be noted that both the Enforcement and Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation, Lahore, had jointly seized 10 containers of smuggled items worth Rs400 million a month back. The detained trucks belonged to New Baluchistan goods.
Sources said the value of containers runs into millions of rupees against Mazda trucks, which could carry goods worth a few hundred thousand only. “If a container carries Rs50 million smuggled goods, the capacity of Mazda trucks is only Rs5 million. Therefore, the volume of legal trade has increased to meet the market demand.”
Meanwhile, reliable sources from the Directorate of Intelligence & Investigation told this scribe that these notorious smugglers have changed their modus operandi as they dump their containers in the cities adjacent to Lahore and shift them to Mazda trucks for the wholesale markets in the city of Lahore supplying goods to the rest of the province.
In some cases, the smuggles were also found shifting the smuggled goods from containers to small trucks at roadsides in small and far flung areas. The field staff of Customs Preventive has seized a few such Mazda trucks recently, they added.