Southern coastal belt becoming drug smuggling hub - Police

By Sandun Jayawardana

The southern coastal belt is increasingly becoming a hub for illegal narcotics, with drug traffickers unloading consignments of drugs smuggled via sea along the coast and transporting them inland, law enforcement authorities say.

There has been a significant increase within the past six months of drug consignments being unloaded off the southern coast and being smuggled inland, a senior police officer told TimesOnline, adding that joint operations are being conducted with the assistance of other agencies such as the Sri Lanka Navy and the Coast Guard to thwart trafficking attempts.

In the latest detection, a special operation launched under the direction of the senior-most police officers in the southern province on Wednesday (10) resulted in the detection of 75 kilograms of heroin being transported in a car at Deiyandara in Matara. The two occupants in the car, a 29-year-old male resident of Negombo and a 38-year-old female resident of Kandy were taken into custody.

The 75 kilograms of heroin were found in two stocks. One stock was found inside the car while the other stock was found at another location. The heroin was packed in 68 packages. The two suspects in custody had acted as ‘couriers’ who had been assigned to transport the drugs from one location to another, according to police.

The operation in Deiyandara was the third large-scale anti-narcotics operation launched by police in the area this year, Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said. He added that area police stations, the Special Task Force (STF) and the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) have been conducting operations in the Weligama, Midigama and Matara areas during the past few months.

On November 20, last year, the STF arrested a suspect in Weligama with 111 kilograms of heroin while an army soldier and an army deserter were apprehended while transporting 45 kilograms of heroin in a van at Horana on February 24.

Authorities have also named the alleged drug kingpin behind the Deiyandara and Horana drug hauls as Ruwan Nadun Chinthaka alias ‘Harak Kata.’ A resident of Weligama, the suspect is now operating from overseas, police stated.

Police believe that both heroin stocks had been hidden at an 18-acre plot of land in Weligama Midigama before being removed.

The Sri Lanka Navy is conducting regular patrols along the coasts to prevent drug trafficking, Navy Spokesman Captain Indika De Silva stated. He however, noted that drug traffickers were using local fishing boats to land drugs on shore. “There are some 40,000 registered fishing boats in the country. There is always a chance that some will slip through our cordons,” he said.

Captain De Silva though, stressed that coordination between different agencies has improved greatly in recent years, resulting in a host of successful anti-narcotics operations.