|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 21 December 2003 |
 |
|
 |
News |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Public transport - modus operandi of drug couriers Heroin smuggling across the Palk Strait will come under intense scrutiny of both the Indian government and the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB). The Indian authorities have indicated their willingness to share intelligence relating to heroin smuggling with their Sri Lankan counterparts. DIG, Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) Jayantha Wickremaratne said a top Indian civil administrator who oversees anti-narcotic operations in India had pledged his support to the PNB to crackdown heroin smuggling from within the Indian territories. DIG Wickremaratne had met him in Bangkok while attending a conference of South Asian law enforcement agencies last week. He said the Indian authorities are keeping a tab on the activities of several Sri Lankan drug dealers operating on Indian soil. Director Police Narcotics Bureau, SSP, Pujit Jayasundera said that heroin is transported from Tuticorin to Chennnai by road and thereafter it is smuggled to Mannar via the Palk strait. The stuff is then brought to Colombo by drug couriers using public transport as few such vehicles are searched today by security personnel. Drug traffickers use the Palk Strait- Mannar route after the government ceased hostilities with the LTTE. He said several top rung drug dealers have been rounded up following the arrest of Jesudasan's gang and Samsudeen from his Ward Place residence with 23 kg of heroin. Meanwhile the PNB is keeping a close tab on the activities of 53 drug barons in the country, he said. DIG Wickremaratna who now heads of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) has successfully netted in most wanted drug dealers in a short span of one month. The PNB officials during the last two months have seized heroin worth over Rs. 50 million in raids conducted in Colombo and its suburbs. Director Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) SSP Pujit Jayasundera said that three persons were arrested last Tuesday following the detection of 16 grams of heroin from a residence at Baseline Road Borella. PNB officers busted up a heroin distributing centre at Kibula-ela in Mutuwal area following the arrest of a drug kingpin along with two persons. Police found 1 kg and 83 grams of heroin (Brown sugar variety) at a residence along with .450 revolver and 526 rounds of ammunition used for 9 mm pistols and revolvers. The Mutuwal centre had supplied heroin to addicts in Colombo North and the Colombo Central during the last few years. Even police stations around Kibula-Ela area turned a blind eye to this operation due to kingpins influence with politicians. Police are also looking for another drug kingpin named Naushad who had gone into hiding after the Kibula-ela bust up. Naushad who operates from Wattala has been supplying heroin to residents in Wattala and Hendala areas, police said. Meanwhile, the PNB has launched an inquiry as to how a drug dealer came to possess a .450 revolver with a haul of ammunition. "We have reason to believe that the drug trade is related to northern separatist movement and obviously the revolver and the ammunition may have come from that part of the region." a Senior Police officer said. Meanwhile, on a tip off last week PNB sleuths kept a watchful eye on a Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus plying from Mannar to Pettah bus. The bus had arrived in Colombo around 2.30. a.m. The sleuths waited patiently to see what was going on while the CTB driver alighted from the bus and went to a telephone booth nearby and made a call. A few minutes later he returned to the bus and retrieved a parcel from underneath the drivers seat when the police arrested him. The parcel contained 2 kgs and 834 grams of heroin (brown sugar variety) worth Rs. 7.6 million. Meanwhile, an investigation launched by the PNB has revealed that a top drug baron arrested recently has acquired the following movable and immovable properties. One unregistered Benz car, a Pugoet car, A Nissan, a 3-wheeler, a residence in Colpetty. a shop at Pannala. a garment factory at Pannala. and lands at Pannala and Athurugiriya. A survey carried by the PNB has found that there are over 10,000 drug addicts in Colombo alone who spend nearly Rs 500 a day on drugs. Thus making it a lucrative business drug dealers. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
