Eight suspects, including two Post Masters, had been arrested for abusing the postal system and illegally bringing mobile phones and tablet PCs into the country, the Police said.

One of the Post Masters is head of the Parcels Department while the other was a Post Master.

The Police said they have recovered 173 mobile phones and 4 Tablets at a shop in Petah after initial investigations.

The Police alleged that suspects received the electronic items by post from Dubai to fraudulent addresses and smuggled the items into the market while filling the original parcels with waste paper and other waste weights at the Central Mail Exchange in Colombo.

The person who had imported the parcel to the Sri Lanka had paid Rs 110,000 to the accused for cooperating with them in the racket, the Police said. The parcels had been sent in May from Dubai.

When three parcels had been lying around in the Central Mail Exchange without anyone laying claim for them the Superintendent of Foreign Post of the Mail Exchange had opened one of the parcels and found it filled with papers.

Later he had lodged a complaint with the Police.

The suspects would be produced before the Fort Magistrate today, the Police said.(DS)