A group of Navy personnel engaged in a search operation today (March 29) along the coastal belt of Mannar, discovered more than 1000kg of beedi leaves floating in the sea.
According to the Navy, the beedi leaves which were concealed in 33 large parcels amounted to 1456kg in quantity. Officials believe attempts were being made to illegally smuggle the beedi leaves in to the country by concealing the leaves in packages and allowing it to float along the coastal belt undetected.
The packages of beedi leaves are to handed over to the Jaffna Customs office.
The floating packages of beedi are the second instance this month. This week personnel attached to the North-Western Naval Command seized 1232.5 kilograms of beedi leaves which were found floating in the seas off Udappuwa.
According to the Navy this year alone there have been eight attempts to smuggle beedi leaves into the country and upto date nine individuals have been arrested.
The total amount of beedi leaves smuggled into the country at present stands at more than 8000kg, the Navy said.
Customs have detected 228 mobile phones and tabs valued at over Rs 30 million left behind in the duty free shopping complex at the Banaranaike International Airport today, Customs officials said.
Read this week’s Sunday Times for your interesting articles including the ’’5th Column’’.
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