Fact-check: Viral drug bust video misattributed to Islamabad

A video clip viewed over tens of thousands of times claims to show the police seizing a large container of illegal drugs on the motorway in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city.

The claim is baseless. The video is not from Pakistan.

Claim

On June 29, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted a 47-second video with the caption: “In a major operation, the Islamabad police have seized a container smuggling drugs worth tens of millions.”

The accompanying video shows a policeman standing on top of the truck uncovering the drugs.

At the time of writing, this post had been viewed over 78,500 times, reposted over 130 times and liked over 540 times.

Fact

The claim is false. The video of the drugs being seized was recorded in Brazil and not Pakistan.

Geo Fact Check conducted a reverse image search of keyframes from the video and traced it back to the Raposo Tavares Highway in São Paulo, Brazil.

On May 29, the military police in the city of São Paulo posted the same image on their official website, stating that they had seized over 600 kilograms of marijuana hidden on the roof of a truck.

The post can be read here

The same was reported by several Brazilian media outlets on the day, which can be read here and here

Furthermore, it must be noted that the uniform of the policeman on the truck is not that of the Islamabad police. Also, the side of the truck reads “Logistica,” which is Portuguese for “Logistics.”

Verdict: The video does not show Islamabad police busting a drug-smuggling container. It actually shows São Paulo’s military police in Brazil seizing 600 kilograms of marijuana from a container on the Raposo Tavares Highway.

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