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Sunday, 17 July 2005  
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Tea trading and contract killings

Crime Sunday by Jaympathy Jayasinghe

It was past mid night last Saturday when OIC (Crimes) Cinnamon Gardens police was on his usual night patrol rounds when he spotted a Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle bearing no 65-3636 parked on a stretch of road at Malalasekera Mawatha Colombo 7. A top residential area where the upper crust of society lives. Police usually come across vehicles parked in road corners in the night but the Land Cruiser drew their attention.

Whilst checking the vehicle, police found bodies of four men slumped on the back seat of Land Cruiser. All four had been shot dead after being gagged and with their hands tied behind their bodies.

Was it the work of a pernicious underworld gang? If so who could have hired an underworld gang to assassinate the former Provincial Council Minister.? The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) has questioned several persons in this connection.

It was a Commando type guerilla operation swiftly carried out with meticulous precision. But who could have possibly killed him and for what? Aghastly killing where the killers had left few clues. The victims were later identified as the former Central Provincial Council Minister, M. T. F. Ameen, a 19 year old relative, the driver and a factory employee.

It all happened last Friday when three persons dressed in police uniforms and travelling in a white Dolphin van had trailed Ameen's Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle all the way from Pussellewa to Ramboda area. The victim was returning after prayers from the Pussellawa mosque. According to relatives of Ameen, a white Dolphin van intercepted the Land Cruiser after overtaking it at Katukithula Karagasthalawa. As both vehicles came to a grinding halt the three men dressed in police uniform leapt out and ran towards the Land Cruiser. Having grabbed Ameen and the other three passengers they forced them into the Dolphin van and drove away.

The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) is investigating whether it was another reprisal killing. The deceased was a wealthy man who owned a tea estate in Ramboda area. He was said to be involved in buying bulk tea from the Colombo tea auctions to be exported to Middle- East and Europe.

Several incidents which occurred last year rocked the Colombo Tea Auctions. Many top executives of tea companies were threatened with death by an underworld gang for not co-operating with them in purchasing inferior quality teas. In fact many of them were too frightened to bid at the Colombo tea auctions.

A gunman opened fire at a Senior Executive of a tea company in Colombo while his car was stopped at the traffic lights Maradana. The gunman shot him four times and escaped. The executive miraculously survived the assassination attempt but was crippled by the shooting.

Two persons were seen later fleeing the scene in a three wheeler. According to senior police officer the shooting was due to rivalry between tea companies. In an another incident, Shyam Rajiv Bodidasa, an executive of a tea company was shot dead by an underworld gang while stepping out of a shop at Nawala Nugegoda.

The killers had trailed his car all the way from his office at Kotahena. This was another contract killing where killers were not apprehended.

Last year the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) arrested a notorious underworld figure from Maligawatte alleged to be involved in a drug dealing case.

Subsequently the Maradana police arrested his lieutenant with a pistol which they believe was used in the failed assassination attempt of the tea executive. Police are further making inquiries whether the underworld figure had any dealings with the slain Provincial Council Minister.

Last year the Tea Commissioners Department declared a war against unscrupulous traders who were export and inferior quality teas to the Middle Eastern countries. They said that export of inferior quality teas tarnished the country's image as a quality tea producing country.

In a bid to prevent large quantities of inferior quality teas being exported to the Middle Eastern countries illegally the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) along with the Tea Commissioners Department raided several warehouses at Grandpass and Wolfendhal street last year and discovered several hundred thousand kilos of inferior quality teas.

CCD also seized three container loads of inferior quality teas, (67,000 kilos) readied to be taken to the Colombo Harbour to be exported to Iraq.

The Tea Commissioner's Department officials certified that the tea was of an inferior quality. Several warehouses at Stace Road, Mattakuliya were also raided by the police. Police found that the entire quantity of tea had been brought to Colombo from a residence at Gampola.

The Tea Commissioners Department in 2002 confiscated over 95,000 kilos of inferior quality teas that were to be exported to the Middle East. DIG Colombo, Pujitha Jayasundera said so far no one has been arrested in connection with the Malalasekera Mawatha killing.

ANCL TENDER- Platesetter

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