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Pakistani heroin smuggler disappears: Customs, Police trade charges
View(s):The Customs and the Police yesterday traded charges over the failure to arrest the Pakistani mastermind involved in the smuggling of 36 kilograms of heroin to Sri Lanka on Friday as he made his escape from a shipping line office in Kollupitiya.The Customs claimed that they informed the Police to arrest the suspect from the shipping office, but the Police Narcotics Bureau claimed it did not receive any communication about the whereabouts of the Pakistani suspect. The Pakistani who came to Sri Lanka on February 20 via the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport under the name of Muhammed Ajaz called over at ECU Line Lanka Private Ltd at R.A.de Mel Mawatha in Colombo to obtain a delivery order to clear the container.
“We provided the information to the Police Narcotics Bureau, but it did not act promptly to make the arrest,” Customs spokesman Leslie Gamini said.
However, PNB Director Kamal Silva dismissed the claim saying that the Police were not informed about the movements of the Pakistani suspect, but had sent a team to Orugodawatte to assist the Customs in their investigation.
The container carrying the heroin had come from Karachi. The importer had declared that it contained hardware items and garment accessories.
Customs officials in their search found that the heroin was concealed in two boxes of nuts and bolts in the container. Special bolts with a hollow in them had been manufactured to conceal the heroin. This was the second biggest detection of heroin after 261 kilograms of heroin were smuggled into the country in August last year. Investigations into that detection are still going on.
Customs investigations found that the Pakistani national wanted in connection with Friday’s detection had imported two other containers and cleared them earlier.
Meanwhile two local shipping agents and two wharf clerks detained in connection with Friday’s detection were questioned and released by the Customs yesterday.