Notorious underworld kingpin behind Rs.250Mn Ice smuggling: Excessive seizure of drugs, fags not linked to recent political change – agencies

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana  

The continuous and excessive seizure of dangerous drugs like Ice, Kush and illicit cigarettes by the authorities at the main international airport in the past few weeks has no connection to the recent change in the country’s political sphere, agencies said.   

In response to a massive methamphetamine haul (Ice) weighing over ten kilograms and worth over Rs.250 million, which was seized while being carried by a single passenger, the Sri Lanka Customs said the detections were not politically motivated.   

A senior official from the Customs Narcotic Control Unit told the Daily Mirror that they too have noticed various inquiries being made across society, whether there had been any notable increase in the detections following the Presidential Election in September, but denied any political relevance to that.   

The Sri Lanka Customs personnel stationed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) have made a series of illegal cigarette detections amounting to millions of rupees with Kush, Cocaine and Ice seizures amounting to hundreds of millions of rupees during the last four weeks.   

The official said even they too can’t comprehend the fact that the attempts to smuggle drugs and illicit products have notably escalated during the past few weeks, thus they continue to conduct the regular operations intact.   

The latest of the lot being a 35-year-old local man attempting to smuggle 10 kilos and 197 grams of Ice concealed in tea packets from Malaysia arrested at the BIA Arrival Terminal on Friday night.   

The suspect had returned on Malaysian Airlines flight MH 179 from Kuala Lumpur and was nabbed whilst trying to use the Customs Green Channel to exit the airport with drugs.   

Preliminary inquiries had revealed that the suspect from Dematagoda was linked to a notorious underworld kingpin from the same area, who is currently serving a jail term. The Police Narcotic Bureau had taken over the case along with the suspect and drugs for further investigations.