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New laws to seize bank accounts and vehicles of drug barons
View(s):The Government will introduce laws to seize money in bank accounts and vehicles of convicted drug barons and their allies.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will meet the officials of the Treasury, Attorney General’s Department and law enforcement authorities to discuss the parameters of this legislation.
The new move will empower the government to seize funds from such accounts and vehicles.
The regulations will be made under the Money Laundering Act which empowers the Finance Minister to gazette regulations to seize money acquired illegally and for the money to be used by the state. In a similar manner the vehicles owned by such persons too could be acquired.
A Prime Minister’s office official said that in terms of such a gazette notification, provisions would be made for the money to be used by the state while vehicles would be given to the Police for anti-crime operations.
He said the regulations would apply for the existing funds and on future accounts of drug trafickers.
The move came after investigations carried out by a special unit headed by Senior Deputy Inspector General Deshabandu Tennakoon revealed that transactions amounting to more than Rs 2.6 billion had been traced to accounts of drug traffickers. At least 81 vehicles used by them had already been seized.
Senior DIG Tennakoon told the Sunday Times investigations had revealed that funds were being transferred from account to account over the years and some accounts had been closed down after withdrawing the money.
Thirty-one accounts held by a drug trafficker known as Mervyn Jana, now in custody, had at one time amounted to Rs 725 million, but had now been reduced to Rs 3.9 million. All accounts have been suspended. He said nearly 400 suspects involved in organised crime groups and drug trafficking had been identified by the unit and operations were underway to arrest them. Some had already been arrested.