Illegal vehicle racket busted

Six suspects were arrested and 13 vehicles worth around Rs.9 million were seized when the Special Task Force (STF) raided an illegal vehicle assembly plant in Makumbura, Kottawa.

The suspects had imported vehicle spare parts to evade custom tariffs and then had been assembling vehicles, especially jeeps. They have also prepared forge vehicle registration books before selling the vehicles.

 The STF found a black Allion, a Nissan Double Cab, a Daewoo jeep, a Mazda Buddy truck, a Nissan car and a Mitsubishi Pajero. All of these vehicles were assembled and completed at the time of the raid.

They also found regulators, gas tanks, oxygen tanks, carbon tanks and nineteen spares belonging to different types of vehicles worth around an additional Rs.5 million apart from the total amount of the assembled vehicles seized.


They are residents of the same area and had been operating the illegal business for a considerable time period. The suspects were arrested following information gathered from the area and based on a tip-off to the STF intelligence, carried out the raid.

 The STF handed over the suspects to the Homagama police and they are now investigating to recover more vehicles that have been robbed by the suspects.

The STF is also looking to find out other charges that are under the name of the suspects based on information gathered from further questioning of the suspects. (Supun Dias)