The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has seized assets worth approximately Rs2 billion during a large-scale operation against illegal hawala and hundi networks operating between Pakistan, Europe, and Gulf countries.

Officials from the FIA’s Peshawar Zone confirmed that the crackdown led to the recovery of significant amounts of foreign currency, including US dollars, Saudi riyals, UAE dirhams, and other international denominations. Authorities also confiscated Iranian currency valued at nearly Rs210 million, which investigators said had been illegally accumulated and stored.

The operation formed part of an expanded campaign aimed at dismantling organized financial crime syndicates involved in unauthorized money transfers and cross-border laundering activities. Investigators noted that the raids simultaneously targeted interconnected criminal networks suspected of facilitating both financial crimes and human exploitation.

Over the past 15 months, the FIA has conducted 549 raids nationwide, resulting in the arrest of 1,337 suspects linked to hawala operations and related offences. During the investigations, authorities also broke up a group allegedly involved in illegal kidney transplant activities, arresting four individuals, including a medical practitioner.

According to officials, the network targeted economically vulnerable individuals — particularly brick kiln workers and low-income laborers from Punjab — pressuring them into selling kidneys for payments reportedly as low as Rs100,000.

The FIA stated that enforcement actions will continue as part of ongoing efforts to curb illicit financial flows, strengthen regulatory oversight, and dismantle transnational crime networks engaged in money laundering and human trafficking.