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Police on drug trail connecting the dots to get a bigger picture than Dubai lead
Investigators are trying to ascertain if the heroin racket uncovered last week in the Welivita area is connected to several recent large-scale such detections made by Sri Lankan and Indian authorities during the past few weeks.
The Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) uncovered 300 grams of heroin and nearly Rs 60 million in cash during raids conducted in the Kaduwela, Malabe and Welivita areas last week.
Police display the drug money recovered during the raids in the Kaduwela, Malabe and Welivita areas last week
The recovery of nearly Rs 60 million in cash during the successful drug bust has been described as the largest such haul of drug money recovered in cash. Police claimed that the money was one week’s collection from drug sales.
The PNB arrested three suspects — two men and a woman, during the raids. The two male suspects are residents of Hewagama, Kaduwela and Thalangama, Battaramulla. The female suspect is a resident of Nugegoda. They are being held under detention orders for questioning.
Under interrogation, the suspects had mentioned the name of an alleged Dubai-based Sri Lankan as being the mastermind of the racket.
While the suspects had mentioned a Dubai-based Sri Lankan as the trafficker, a PNB source cautioned that the probe was still in its early stages and that investigators still only had the word of the suspects fingering the alleged foreign-based trafficker as being the mastermind. “There’s a lot more work to be done before we can be sure,” the source added.
It has also come to light that the female suspect arrested in the operation is the daughter of deceased underworld figure ‘Soththi Upali,’ who was well connected with politicians in the 1980s. The PNB source, though, alleged that her role in the operation had been blown out of proportion by sections of the media due to the notoriety of her father. “We believe the two male suspects were the key figures in the operation,” the source added.
If investigators do determine that the alleged Dubai-based trafficker was indeed the mastermind of the drug smuggling operation, they will have to report the facts to court and ask for a warrant for his arrest. If a warrant is issued, the police will have to obtain a ‘Red Notice’ for his arrest through Interpol, enabling law enforcement authorities in Dubai to arrest him.
Police will also be looking into whether the latest detection of heroin has any connection to the detection of several other large hauls of drugs in recent weeks, Police Spokesman and Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana said.
Of particular interest to police are the recovery of more than 100 kilograms of heroin in Weligama by the Special Task Force (STF) in November and the drug bust in Puttalam earlier this month by the Excise Department. The raid by Excise officers led to the recovery of 100 kilograms of heroin and 100 kilograms of the synthetic drug ICE.
Police are also probing the report of a multiday fishing trawler being seized by the Indian Coast Guard off the coast of Thooththukudi on November 24.
In that drug bust, Indian Coast Guard personnel seized the boat along with six Sri Lankan crew members. Indian media reported that Coast Guard personnel had seized 99 packets of heroin, totalling about 100 kilograms, 20 small boxes of synthetic drugs, five 9mm pistols and a satellite phone set from the vessel. The drugs had been hidden in an empty fuel tank onboard the vessel.
Ihe Indian Coast Guard claimed that according to investigations, the drugs and weapons had been transferred to the Sri Lankan trawler from a boat originating from Karachi in Pakistan.
While restrictions on air travel are in place, much of the narcotics drugs that enter the country are smuggled into the country via sea, DIG Rohana said. “It might be that a lot of these shipments are connected. They try to smuggle in about 100 kilograms of heroin at a time and these are then distributed across the country,” he observed. However, he said further investigations are ongoing to establish if there is a definite link between the most recent detections.