News
Lanka in grip of new form of terror with drug cartels, expert warns as top gangster nabbed
While eagle-eyed surveillance officials foiled an elaborate plan by notorious drug peddler “Kudu Chamara” to flee the country this week a former top policeman warned Sri Lanka was experiencing a new form of terrorism in the booming narcotics trade. “The real mafia behind this whole drug racket is in Colombo,” the country’s first Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) chief and former deputy inspector-general of police, Anton Jeyanathan, told the Sunday Times.
“There is so much heroin coming into the country and the demand for the stuff grows each day and there is a huge supply to meet these demands.”
Recent haul of detected heroin
“These drugs coming in have a major impact on the economy of the country. Great wealth leaves the country illegally and is stored in the banks of these gangs.
“This is another form of terrorism. Officers should go out and arrest the culprits irrespective of any connection they may have. There should be a combined taskforce to get at the big people in the drug business.
“Action should be taken fast if the government wants to save the younger generation of this country,” Mr Jeyanathan said.
On Monday, heroin distributor Devage Thushitha Chamara alias Kudu Chamara was arrested at the eleventh hour after escaping jail and laying a well-ordered plan to escape the country.
On June 20, Kudu Chamara had been apprehended with 506 grams of heroin worth Rs. 4.5 million after being found at a residence he shared with his mistress in Thalangama.
The Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) held him for seven days before producing him in the Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court, and remanded.
He was sent to the Mahara prison on June 26.
On the evening of June 28, Chamara complained of stomach-aches, headaches and chest pains. After the prison doctor had checked him, he was admitted to the Ragama hospital.
A senior police officer told the Sunday Times that on the morning of June 29 two prison officials, one a new recruit, had been on guard at the hospital.
Chamara had managed to have his mobile phone delivered to him from his residence by bribing one guard with Rs. 1000.
He had offered the guards Rs. 20,000 to set him free but this had not gone ahead, the officer said.
He said Chamara had finally paid Rs. 4500 to the guards to let him use the lavatory. They had accepted this and he had kept going to the lavatory until finally making his escape while doing so.
He had gone into hiding for one-and-a-half months in a house that he rented for Rs. 75,000 in Wellawatte, cooking up a plan with his mistress Amali and an individual called Sampath to flee the country and fly to Dubai under a fake visitor’s visa.His plan was to travel under a fraudulent passport. He had taken copies of the identity documents of a relative and, attaching a photograph of himself to the papers, had sent them to an assistant immigration controller to be issued with a passport.
“We figured how he made his fake passport and we traced the matter to Mr. Pushpakumara, an assistant immigration controller. The standard procedure is to check original documents when issuing a passport. In this instance, however, the assistant controller had been given photocopies and been allegedly paid a sum of Rs. 75,000,” a police officer said.
On August 25, narcotics bureau officers in civilian clothes on duty at Bandaranaike International Airport noticed an individual displaying suspicious behaviour although at the time they had not recognised the well-disguised criminal.
The officers’ suspicions had been aroused when they noticed him handing an envelope to an Immigration official.
The official had escorted Chamara to the baggage scanner and afterwards to the Air Force officer who security-checked him, and then had placed his baggage at the ticket counter. The Immigration officer had then told Chamara to come to counter 15 for his passport and ticket check.
“We were monitoring all of this through our surveillance cameras. And once the officer passed the suspect through the counter we sprang on them and arrested the pair,” the police officer said.
“During interrogation the suspect told us of his true identity and gave us information about the entire escape plot. We then arrested Pushpakumara, Assistant Controller of Immigration.”
Last week Pakistani national Shakeel Ahmed was apprehended by the PNB in connection with the huge haul of heroin at Katugastota on August 15.
Police had discovered that the suspect’s telephone was linked to the phones of the individuals arrested in the Katugastota raid.
“We are conducting investigations into the matter and have information pertaining to several other key suspects involved in this racket,” the officer added.
Referring to revelations of two major drug lords, Wele Suda and Mohammed Siddique, said to be running cartels in this country from safe havens overseas, he said, “We also have information relating to a third drug lord and it has come to light that he is an international drug peddler”.
The PNB seized 59kg of heroin in the Katugastota raid, exposing a new heroin mafia on the rampage in Sri Lanka.
The raid had followed investigations that led police to Ahmed Sabirr Thajudin, said to be the local agent for the third drug lord.
“We initiated the operation in 2012 and this person was under surveillance for almost one-and-a-half years. The drug network is strong but we have a great deal of information and we will act on it,” a senior police officer said.
The police arrested Thajudin, 34, on August 14 in Matale. During interrogation he had revealed the address of the heroin storehouse in Katugastota and the police were able to locate the drugs.
Alleged accomplices Mohammed Farouk and his wife were arrested in Park Road, Mount Lavinia in connection with the incident. Another suspect, Mohammed Ashraf, was arrested in Kekirawa by the police.
Another notorious drug peddler, Nuwan Udaya Gunathileka alias “Kudu Nuwan”, was arrested by the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) on August 20 during a raid carried out in the Meethotamulla area, Wellampitiya. The CCD also seized 300g of heroin in his possession at the time of arrest.
Previously Kudu Nuwan was affiliated with Minister Mervyn Silva when the minister had broken into Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation premises in December 2007 with a group of thugs and assaulted the news director.
The Sunday Times learns that the past two years have seen some of the largest drug hauls in Sri Lanka’s history. Drugs come into the country by sea and air, mainly in shipping containers.
“Drugs are smuggled in through the airport, seaports and illegal entry points,” Mr Jeyanathan told the Sunday Times. “We have identified most of these illegal entry points to be located in Chilaw, Wattala and Mannar.”
“Serious interdiction and detection is not the only answer. The Police Narcotics Bureau should be strengthened. A lot of thinking has to go into this by the government and the law enforcement agencies,” the former DIG said.
More than 13,000 people were arrested this year alone on charges of possessing heroin. Fourteen local drug lords have been apprehended and 291kg of heroin have been seized this year to date.
With these concerns Sri Lanka hopes to exchange intelligence with Pakistan in forthcoming weeks in the hope of tackling the growing menace of narcotics smuggling.
On August 20 Sri Lanka and India held discussions pertaining to the threat during the first-ever talks between the anti-narcotics agencies of both countries.
In the first talks at Director-General level between India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Sri Lanka’s PNB both sides shared a common concern over the growing drugs threat.
The Indian delegation was led by Vijay Kumar, Deputy Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) while the Sri Lankan delegation was headed by Pujith Jayasundara, Senior DIG/Northern Province, Sri Lanka.
Both sides agreed to immediately exchange intelligence in respect of drugs and to monitor the movements of notorious drug dealers from one country to another.