Rs.42Mn worth Hashish that came with biscuits, pampers, noodles seized

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

A large stock of marijuana based drug hashish worth over Rs.42 million, that came through air cargo from Italy amidst consumer goods of imported biscuits, pampers and noodles were seized by the Customs and Police officials yesterday.   

Sri Lanka Customs and Police Narcotic Bureau in a joint operation halted a consignment of imported goods that had arrived at a private freight forwarding company in Peliyagoda last Wednesday.   

Customs Spokesperson Director Seevali Arukgoda said the consignment had been then transferred to the Customs Revenue Task Force (RTF) cargo inspection yard in Orugodawatta where the goods were opened for checking.   

The RTF officials in the presence of the PNB officials searched the goods to find 35 kilos of hashish, which had been valued at Rs.42 million. A kilogram of hashish has a street value of Rs.1.2 million.   

A senior official of the Customs RTF told the Daily Mirror the goods had come on three pallets carrying biscuits, confectioneries, instant noodles and baby products including pampers. The narcotics had been carefully concealed amongst these goods and the officials also found a buffel set, which contained hashish in it.   

The consignment had been sent through a door-to-door cargo handling system where only the name and telephone number of the consignee was mentioned. The delivery is arranged by a third-party freight forwarding agent and the PNB had checked the consignee details and found them to be false.   

Customs RTF Director Nimal Samaratunga, Deputy Director Nalin Premaratne, Superintendent Moonis and OIC Manjula are conducting on the instructions of Customs Director General Sarath Nonis.   

The contraband had been handed over to the PNB for further investigations.