International Airline Flight Attendant Offloaded at Karachi Airport for Smuggling, The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intensified its anti-smuggling operations at Jinnah International Airport on Friday, offloading a female flight attendant after a large quantity of prohibited items was recovered from her luggage.
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Suspicious Behavior Leads to Discovery
The crew member, who serves with an international airline (identified as Saudia), was preparing to depart for Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport with a Saudi exit re-entry visa. During the immigration clearance process, her behavior was marked as suspicious by the Government Reporting Officer (GRO).
Upon a detailed search of her baggage, authorities recovered:
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26 bundles of cigarettes
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9 packets of Adab gutka
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24 sachets of Rajni tobacco
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3 shopping bags of betel nuts (Chalia)
Confession and Bribery Allegations
During initial interrogation, the flight attendant reportedly admitted to being involved in the illegal transportation of commercial and prohibited goods for the past six months.
In a shocking disclosure, she allegedly claimed that 10 to 12 other crew members are also involved in similar smuggling activities. She further admitted that she managed to clear these prohibited items during previous departures by bribing officials from various departments and airline staff.
Legal Action and Crackdown
The FIA has offloaded the attendant and handed her over to the FIA Anti-Corruption Circle Karachi for further legal proceedings and to investigate the broader network she mentioned.
This incident comes amid a period of high scrutiny at Pakistan’s major airports. The FIA has recently offloaded thousands of suspicious travelers to curb human smuggling and illegal trade, a move that authorities claim has contributed to an improvement in the global ranking of the Pakistani passport.
