Novel ruse to hoodwink police

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

Last Thursday Inspector Duminda Balasuriya, officer in charge of the Central Anti Vice Striking Force (CAVSF) at Walana, Panadura was at his desk from early in the morning attending to his correspondence. He was perusing a heap of petitions nonchalantly, that had piled up on his desk. He usually reads his mail in the morning before commencing the day's work.

The petitions he receives everyday pertains to manufacture of illicit liquor, running of brothels and peddling of heroin countrywide. Eighty percent of the petitions against persons are accurate and the rest were fictitious ones written by those who hold personal grudges against others.

However one or two petitions caught the eye of Inspector Balasuriya. It was all about a heroin peddling racket.

The mastermind was a woman (39) who ran a heroin distribution racket from her own home at Badowitta.

Her modus oparandi was distributing small packets of heroin by three wheeler taxi drivers who roamed about in Panadura, Wadduwa, Pinwatte and in Kalutara areas.

The woman was a prosperous heroin dealer who owned three three-wheeler taxis and a motorcycle for heroin distribution in these areas under cover.

The operation was cloaked in secrecy so that few in these areas knew what went on. The heroin peddlers who drove the three wheelers usually set about on their businesses during school hours taking school kids with them. Sometimes they even carried patients with them to avoid checks by the police.

However on a tip off to the Central Anti Vice Striking Force, (CAVSF) Inspector Balasuriya laid a trap last Thursday to apprehend a three wheeler driver. Several policemen in mufti waited in ambush at Panadura town and stopped a speeding three-wheeler. They searched the three-wheeler but did not find anything incriminating.

The three-wheeler driver was whisked into the CAVSF and was stripped and searched. Surprisingly Police found a plastic bag containing 50 packets of heroin, the brown sugar variety pinned on insides of his trouser. Each packet contained 40 milligrams of heroin worth Rs 250. The packets were being delivered to heroin dealer in Panadura area.

Police later raided the house of the woman at Badowitta in Attidiya and found 100 packets of Heroin in her possession. They questioned the woman and learnt that she makes around 700-800 packets a day for distribution in Panadura , Pinwatte, Mount Lavinia and in Kalutara areas.

Her son who had been taken into custody for an heroin offence had been remanded. Police have now launched an investigation to find from where the woman obtained the heroin.