Narcotics worth USD 239 million burnt by Pak authorities

A staggering 51 tonnes of drugs estimated to be worth USD 239 million were burnt today by Pakistani authorities in Rawalpindi.
Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Director-General Major General Nasir Dilawar Shah said on the occasion that the organisation has arrested 1,479 smugglers in the last 10 years, 505 of whom have been sentenced.
"The narcotics torched estimated to be worth USD 239 million were seized in raids carried out by the ANF and from smugglers at airports in 2016," he said.
The drugs, including cocaine and heroin, were destroyed by the military-run ANF at a ceremony attended by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Country Head Cesar Guedes, diplomats and local official.

Shah said Pakistan has been free of poppy, adding that in the past decade 298 tonnes of narcotics worth USD 896 million have been set on fire. He said drugs were being produced and smuggled the most in Afghanistan.
"The ANF is performing this difficult task to making Pakistan free of all kinds of drugs," Minister of State for Interior and Narcotics Control Mian Balighur Rehman said.
UNODC Country Head Cesar Guedes in his address said that World Drug Report released in June 2016 also highlighted the enormity of the drug problem in the region and the resultant fall out not only on Pakistan but the world at large.