Four held during raid on counterfeit cigarette factory in Tando Adam

HYDERABAD: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) team has raided a counterfeit cigarette factory in Tando Adam and recovered counterfeit cigarettes worth millions of rupees while four arrested suspects were arrested. A team of CIA Police Sanghar headed by Inspector Tufail Ahmed raided the counterfeit cigarette factory in Khuda Bakhsh Colony area of Tando Adam and recovered counterfeit cigarettes, raw materials, chemicals and packing materials worth millions of rupees. Factory owner Abdul Razzaq, Shehzad, driver Sajjad, Kashif and Ayaz Khan were arrested on the spot. Inspector Tufail Ahmed Bhutto in-charge of CIA Police Sanghar said that Ayaz Khan, a resident of Mardan, had rented a house in Tando Adam and opened a factory where workers from Mardan and Tando Adam were engaged in making fake brand cigarettes of various multinational companies in the factory. For manufacturing of these cigarettes, chemical raw materials and other goods are being smuggled from Afghanistan to Tando Adam where the counterfeit cigarettes were supplied for sale in different cities of Sindh, CIA officer Tufail Bhutto said. According to Bhutto, hundreds of cartons, chemicals and other items of counterfeit cigarettes were shifted to City Police Station while investigation was initiated against the arrested accused.