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Police face uphill battle in arresting criminal gang lords operating from overseas
View(s):- Questions about remote-controlled contract killings after Club Wasantha is gunned down
By Chandani Kirinde and Damith Wickremasekara
The high-profile killing of Surendra Wasantha Perera, alias Club Wasantha, has once again put the spotlight on the nexus between organised Sri Lankan crime gang leaders operating from overseas, mainly the United Arab Emirates, and their cohorts who carry out deadly contracts for easy cash and safe passage out of the country.
While the authorities have had eight wanted criminals extradited to Sri Lanka in the past few months and secured Interpol Red Notices for close to 50 others, a senior law enforcement source said they were fighting an uphill battle as the clout and reach of organised criminals were growing in the country.
Tight security for Club Wasantha’s funeral. Pic by Akila Jayawardena
“Even if we have extradition treaties with countries where these criminals operate, they have embedded themselves well into the fabric of these countries and easily evade arrest. It’s a case of their money talking,” a senior government source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
Similarly, weaknesses in evidence gathering and poor prosecution mean even those who are caught in the police net manage to get away, either by jumping bail and fleeing the country or being acquitted for lack of evidence.
Najim Mohommad Imran, alias Kanjipani Imran, who is alleged to have given the contract to kill Wasantha Perera from his overseas safe haven, fled the country days after he was granted bail in December 2019. Police say he is either back in Dubai or France, but there is no confirmation of his whereabouts. He was deported from Dubai in March 2019 along with Makandure Madush and charged with the possession and trafficking of 5.3 kg of cannabis, but managed to escape while on bail. Madush was killed in a shootout with the police several months after he was extradited to Sri Lanka.
Investigations into the shooting incident in Beliatta in February this year, where five people, including the leader of the Ape Jana Bala Party, Saman Perera, were killed, revealed that it was carried out on a contract given by a Lankan gangster living in Dubai. The three gunmen involved in the attack had left the country for the UAE soon after the incident, with all arrangements for them to flee the country made by those who had commissioned the contract killing.
According to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, despite the shady characters it attracts, the UAE has a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal drug use, with drug trafficking considered a serious crime and carrying weapons and public displays of violence also heavily penalised. Hence, international criminals and law offenders believed to be in the UAE generally refrain from engaging in these types of activities while in their host country,” the Global Initiative said in a report in June this year.
The ENACT Organised Crime Index, which measures both the level of countries’ criminality and their resilience to organised crime, says that in Sri Lanka, loose criminal networks are a significant problem with a surge in organised crime following the economic recession and resultant inflation, and they are involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling counterfeit and excise goods, and are linked to motorbike gangs.
“They are thought to be financially aided by ringleaders based in the UAE; weak extradition treaties between Sri Lanka and that country hinder officials from arresting the leaders and charging them locally,” the Index said in its latest report on Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has extradition treaties with all Commonwealth countries as well as several non-Commonwealth countries, including the UAE, but the process is exhaustive and requires that a request to extradite a fugitive wanted by Sri Lankan authorities contain compelling evidence linking the individual to the crime he or she has committed.
Last year, notorious underworld gang leader Nadun Chinthaka Wickramaratne and an accomplice were extradited to Sri Lanka from Madagascar, while several others were brought back from Dubai in the UAE in terms of the extradition treaties with these countries.
Police Spokesman and Deputy Inspector General Nihal Thalduwa said there had been a surge in contract killings given by criminals operating from overseas and most were linked to gang wars and personal rivalries as they competed to take control of the drug trade in different areas of the country. Those taking on the contract killings locally are motivated by money as well as promises to get them out of the country soon after they complete the tasks given to them.
There have been close to 50 shooting deaths in the first half of this year, with automatic weapons such as the T-56 being used in some killings. The two gunmen who killed Wasantha Perera and another man and injured several others in Athurugiriya had used T-56 weapons.
“The government has granted several amnesties for those handing over illegally acquired weapons, but there is still a considerable number of weapons in the hands of criminals. The police have sought from the intelligence unit a detailed report on the proliferation of these weapons. The Yukthiya operation has yielded positive results, and we have recovered a good number of such weapons, but more needs to be done,” DIG Talduwa said.
According to the Organised Crime Index on Sri Lanka, the current supply of illegal arms is not a result of significant inflows of illegal weapons but rather of wartime weapons ending up in the hands of criminal networks.
The report added that there are at least 30 known mafia-style groups active in Sri Lanka, and these groups appear to focus on drug trafficking due to the country’s role as a transit hub, and they seem to be particularly active in the south and the north.
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