Rawalpindi -  A man was arrested by Anti-Narcotics Force during a raid at the federal capital for his involvement in smuggling cocaine in the twin cities, official sources disclosed to The Nation on Saturday. The ANF also seized huge quantity of cocaine from possession of the accused identified as Qasim, the sources added. The seized drugs are worth a billion rupees in the international market, they said.

According to sources, the ANF received information that a notorious smuggler of cocaine was present at F-8 Sector for delivering a consignment of drugs. Following the information, a team of ANF carried out raid at F-8 and held the smuggler and recovered huge quantity of cocaine from him. The drug smuggler was moved to ANF Police Station for further investigation, the sources said. Sources said that the arrested accused not only delivered drugs to the customers but also a provider of synthetic drugs in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

They said that ANF had also obtained information during investigation from the accused that his ‘big boss’ was at KP. “The ANF launched a hunt to arrest the big boss as well,” they said. They said that the investigators also detected messages from cell phone of the accused which he sent to many people. “In the messages, Qasim threatened many opponents that nobody could harm him or stop him from supplying cocaine as State Minister for Interior Shehryar Afridi was his close friend,” the sources said.

The sources said that the investigators have also seized pictures of Qasim he clicked with State Minister for Interior. Further investigation is underway and the ANF has also been conducting raids to nab other members of the drug racket headed by Qasim, the sources said.

An official said that the smuggler will be produced before a special court for his judicial custody. He disclosed that he was supposed to run a big racket of cocaine smuggling in the twin cities. State Minister of Interior Sheryar Afridi has not responded to several phone calls and a questionnaire sent by The Nation on his personnel cell number to know his point of view about the claims of Qasim, held by the ANF.