Islamabad (GNP): Pakistan has assisted the United States and Sri Lanka in dismantling a transnational drug trafficking network linked to Afghanistan, after intelligence provided by the Anti-Narcotics Force led to the seizure of 671 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine at the Karachi and Colombo ports.
The Anti-Narcotics Force said the operation exposed a trafficking route being used to move Afghan-origin methamphetamine through Pakistani territory toward international markets, with the arrest of an Afghan suspect in Karachi providing the intelligence that later enabled the seizure in Sri Lanka.
According to the Anti-Narcotics Force, the operation began with actionable intelligence developed by its personnel, which led to the recovery of 200 kilogrammes of methamphetamine from a container at Karachi Port. That seizure led to the arrest of an Afghan national identified as Ehsan Ullah, described by the force as the network’s mastermind, along with several local handlers who assisted the operation.
The investigation into Ehsan Ullah’s network did not end at Karachi. The Anti-Narcotics Force said it shared critical intelligence gathered during the investigation with Sri Lankan authorities and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, enabling those agencies to track and intercept a further shipment.
That cooperation resulted in the recovery of 471 kilogrammes of methamphetamine at Colombo Port, where the drugs had allegedly been concealed inside towels, bringing the combined total seized across both operations to 671 kilogrammes.
The Colombo seizure had first been announced earlier in the week by Sri Lankan police and the United States Embassy in Colombo, which described intercepting almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine in a joint operation.
The embassy estimated the drugs’ value at around $21 million and said they had been concealed in bath towels for onward smuggling to international markets through Sri Lanka. At that stage, Sri Lankan and US authorities had identified the trafficking network as Pakistani and said two Pakistani men had been arrested in connection with the case.
The Anti-Narcotics Force’s own investigation into the Karachi seizure, however, traced the network’s origins to Afghanistan rather than Pakistan, with the arrest and interrogation of Ehsan Ullah yielding the intelligence subsequently shared with Sri Lankan and US authorities.
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The force said Pakistan remains both a transit route and a victim of Afghan-origin narcotics, and that it continues to cooperate with international partner agencies as part of its obligations to combat drug trafficking, noting that the urgency of preventing the shipment from reaching international markets was the reason it shared its intelligence with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The operation, the force said, underscores the importance of intelligence-sharing in disrupting trafficking networks that span multiple jurisdictions, and reflects growing international attention on smuggling routes connecting Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asian maritime ports. It added that its role in exposing the network and coordinating with Sri Lankan authorities and the Drug Enforcement Administration had been formally acknowledged by both.
The Anti-Narcotics Force said, “A total of 671 kg of methamphetamine linked to the Afghanistan-based drug trafficking network was seized from Karachi and Colombo ports.”
