Customs seize Rs.10Mn worth Hashish in dog food cans

Pic by Kithsiri de Mel

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Sri Lanka Customs yesterday seized a stock of Hashish worth over Rs.10 million at the Central Mail Exchange (CME), which had come as dog food inside a parcel sent from Canada.   

Customs Postal Appraising Branch officials at the CME on suspicion opened a parcel which had arrived in Sri Lanka in May addressed to a consignee in Maharagama.   
The officials found a variety of dog food, dog biscuits and the narcotics that were contained in two dog food cans, Customs Spokesman and Senior Director Sudaththa Silva said.   
A senior Customs investigator at the Postal Appraising Branch told the Daily Mirror since nobody turned up to claim the parcel, the Customs had checked up on it to find that it was sent to a false address in Maharagama.   

The sleuths found 670 grams of Hashish in the parcel and presently the street value of a gram of Hashish in Colombo is about Rs.15,000. The stock is valued at Rs.10,050, 000.   
Customs Senior Deputy Director J. M. F. Iffat and Deputy Director Lal Silva and the team of the Postal Appraising Branch are conducting inquiries.   
The contraband was to be handed over to the Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) for further investigations.