Vavuniya TV set deceptions: Police on the lookout for the missing links

The two key suspects involved in the attempt to smuggle in high powered communication equipment concealed in TV sets to LTTE-controlled areas in the Wanni have gone missing, but three others including a trader responsible for transporting the goods are in custody.

Police last Saturday detected 450 walkie-talkie sets, batteries and 30 global positioning systems hidden inside 32 new television sets which were being transported from Colombo to Vavuniya in a lorry. The detection came after a plainclothes policeman who had hitched a ride in the lorry felt suspicious on hearing the driver’s mobile phone conversations. The policeman had requested a lift to Vavuniya from the lorry driver when he had stopped in Medawachchiya for lunch. The policeman had got off midway at Punewa after he felt suspicious about the lorry driver.

He had then alerted the Irrattaperiyakulam check point where the vehicle was fully searched and each TV set checked individually. The television sets had not operated when the power was connected raising further suspicion. Police had then proceeded to remove the casings of the TVs leading to the detection of the equipment.

Police said, usually lorries transporting goods from Colombo to Vavuniya were not checked although those plying from Vavuniya to Colombo were and the smugglers would have known about this and made use of it.

Police said the two key suspects, the supplier of the communication equipment, who had wanted the goods transported from Colombo to Vavuniya and the-would-be recipient of the items, an electronic equipment trader based in Vavuniya town, have gone missing. The supplier had reportedly imported the walkie-talkies from Singapore. Both suspects have been identified and a search was underway, police said.

The owner of the lorry transport company, the driver and the cleaner of the vehicle have been detained for further questioning. Meanwhile a consignment of antennas which police believe were meant for the communication equipment had also been detected at a warehouse in Colombo which was subsequently sealed.

Police said the items detected were usually used by workers to communicate with one another at construction sites and shopping malls.