KARACHI - Pakistani Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) seized drugs worth more than $44.12 million and arrested five drug traffickers from the southern port city of Karachi, police said on Wednesday.

ANF intercepted a container, destined for abroad on Pakistan International Container Terminal and seized a huge quantity of heroin (108 kg) concealed in matchboxes on Tuesday, local police said.

A second raid was immediately made on the outskirts of the city in which 267 kg of heroin was seized and five drug traffickers were arrested.

During initial investigation, the arrested suspects revealed that they had been involved in narcotics smuggling since long. The drugs were smuggled from Afghanistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh province of the country.

ANF officials said that the value of the seized heroin in local market is around two million dollars and in the international market it is worth $44.12 million.

Raids are also being conducted in other parts of the country and efforts are being made to bust the local and international cartel of drug smugglers, police said.

Drugs consumption and production is rapidly growing in Pakistan since last few years. Although other countries of South Asia including Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Maldives all suffer from drug abuse but Pakistan is one of the worst victims of the drug trade in the region.

Pakistan became a major exporter of heroin in the 1980s, following the influx of Afghan refugees in 1979.

Local watchers said that the majority of drug users in South Asia belong to the poorest and uneducated strata of society. The presence of a large drug industry further aggravated the uneven distribution of income in the country where money is being transferred from poor druggies to a few rich individuals who control the drug trade.

It not only widens the breach between the rich and the poor but also erodes social cohesion and stability of the country, officials said.