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| Sunday, 19 October 2003 |
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Drug peddlar on the run by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE Heroin smuggling has once again raised its ugly head following the detection of heroin by the Mulleriyawa police two weeks ago. A millionaire businessman engaged in the jewellery trade is alleged to be the heroin king pin smuggler. The investigation hitherto handled by the Mulleriyawa Police has been taken over by the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) to probe further complicity into the drug smuggling operation. The detection led to a chain of events where a video cassette tape revealed the presence of former IGP, T.E. Anandarajah, at the birthday party of the drug baron's child held at a five star hotel. The Interior Ministry, inquiry headed by the Ministry's Secretary M.N. Junaid exonerated him as there was no evidence of misconduct. The findings of the probe had been forwarded to the President's office, sources said. Meanwhile, the suspect is evading arrest and is believed to be hiding some where in the country although his henchman Udayan was caught by the Mulleriyawa police. However the main suspect's name had been in the PNB list for quite some time. PNB Director, SSP, Pujitha Jayasundera said that a special team has been detailed to track down the drug baron following his disappearance from his residence at Pannipitiya. "It is most likely that he has gone underground and finding him is going to take time." Asked whether he fled abroad, Jayasundera said that it was too early to comment as the police teams were searching for him. "It is quite unlikely that he would slip out of the country at this stage. Interpol and other police agencies abroad have been alerted," he said. The PNB has listed 57 Sri Lankans suspected to be involved in heroin smuggling to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankans mostly based in countries like Pakistan, India and South East Asia were smuggling high quality heroin to Western Europe via Sri Lanka. Heroin smuggled to Sri Lanka is the brown sugar inferior variety. However none of the suspects have not been arrested earlier for drug related offences. Jayasundera says that there are 100,000 heroin addicts in Sri Lanka who spend Rs. 50 million on their daily doses of heroin. He said rehabilitation of drug addicts was a big problem facing the country. Except for one rehabilitation centre there are no proper centres to rehabilitate drug addicts. Eighty seven percent of persons treated for drug abuse came from the Western province and 68 percent from the Colombo district. This was followed by the Southern and North -Western provinces. Drug detection at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) has been hampered due to few dogs being deployed to sniff potential drug couriers and their cargo. There are only four trained dogs at the BIA for such work and steps will be taken to increase the number of dogs. The Police department will set up a PNB unit shortly at the Colombo Ports Authority to monitor the flow of drugs in containers, he said. Meanwhile drug smugglers have shifted their operations from the coastal belt of north western province to Talaimannar due to its close proximity to south India. A high powered boat journey from Rameshwaran takes 45 minutes to arrive at Talaimannar. Smugglers use the Talaimannar route due to few naval boats patrolling the seas around the area. Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) figures show that 62 kgs of heroin was detected from January to September and 34,663 kgs of Ganja (Cannabis Sativa) this year. |
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