Amid a marked decrease in the activities of drug peddlers and a disruption in the supply of heroin, four people including a woman were arrested in Pesalai while they were allegedly transporting 1.3 kilos estimated to be worth Rs.10 million and believed to have been smuggled from India.

The detection was made when the trishaw was stopped at the Pesalai check point in Mannar. However the woman’s husband had managed to escape during the search.

The suspects were believed a part of a drug ring in the area involved in buying, selling and distributing heroin and ganja for some time and they were transporting the heroin to Mannar after collecting the narcotics from a house in Urumalai in Thalaimannar.

The Pesalai police are on the trail of another 28-year-old suspect and his associates who are involved in this illicit business. In another development, the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) seized one kilogramme of heroin worth some Rs.4.5 million in Rajagiriya on Monday.

The PNB said that drug dealers were in a quandary with regard to the distribution of narcotics and as such their modus operandi had changed.

Although the PNB is mainly involved in tracking down drug dealers the Special Task Force (STF) had also been assisting them in these operations.
(By Supun Dias and Ajith Lal Shanthaudaya)