News
Major police op underway against underworld
View(s):- OICs told to get cracking on arresting suspects or face possibility of transfers
By Damith Wickramasekara
A special police operation was launched yesterday to crack down on underworld gangs.
Involving more than 4,000 officers the operation will be conducted islandwide, with special focus on the Western and Southern provinces. Recently these two provinces have witnessed a spate of deadly shootings mainly related to underworld activity.
The Special Task Force (STF), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the State Intelligence Service (SIS), the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) and other police units will be part of the operation, which will continue indefinitely until further notice.
The operation is being directed by a committee headed by Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon, who is in charge of the Western Province, Public Security Ministry Secretary Viyani Gunathilaka told the Sunday Times. DIGs in charge of provinces and Senior Superintendents (SSPs) will also be part of the operation, he added.
The operation aims at arresting known underworld elements, those with outstanding warrants and drug traffickers, Mr Gunathilaka said.
SDIG Tennakoon, meanwhile, said they hope to arrest all active armed underworld suspects with the assistance of the STF within a short time.
Officers-in-Charge (OICs) of all police stations, especially in the Western and Southern provinces have been instructed to expedite investigations into major unresolved crimes that have occurred in their areas within the past five years and to arrest suspects involved within three months. Failure to do so could result in serious consequences, including transfer of OICs who have a high rate of unresolved major crimes such as murders in their areas, SDIG Tennakoon warned.
Both permanent and temporary roadblocks will be deployed with assistance from the STF. Some of these will be deployed at night while others will be deployed during the day.
A WhatsApp number will be introduced to enable the public to share with authorities visuals and images of suspected underworld members. This is in addition to several new hotlines that will be set up for the public to provide tips regarding such elements.
Police also face a major issue of underworld suspects leaving the country using forged passports. Steps will be taken to install several machines with facial recognition features at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). The machines will enable the authorities to identify underworld elements via facial recognition technology even if they are using forged passports, the SDIG said.
He said vehicles and other property of underworld suspects too will be held under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act until the conclusion of their trials.
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