LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Lahore has stepped up operations against money laundering and Hawala-Hundi business.

A huge amount of dollars and foreign currency was recovered by conducting raids in Defense area.

Many money exchangers took to their heels seeing the FIA officers. Three teams of the FIA Corporate Crime Circle conducted raids at different places.

The teams were led by Deputy Director Corporate Crime Circle Mubasher Ahmed Tirmizi. The first raid was made in the Universal Exchange Company Y block.

The exchange was closed by the State Bank but kept open illegally by the owner.

The second raid was conducted on Moneylink Exchange where

The staff was found to be involved in the business of thousands of dollars on mobile phones.

The exchange staff could not produce the records of dollar transactions.

The third raid was on the World Exchange Company, where records of transactions worth eight lakhs were found but the cash was missing.

All the exchangers were found involved in off-book currency transactions. The FIA seized all the records and started an investigation.