Police nab drug dealers

The Bandaranike International Airport (BIA) usually is a busy place like any other airport in the South East Asian region with passenger and cargo planes landing and taking off at regular intervals.

Apart from that the common things one sees everyday are queues of passengers scrambling with their baggage at the Arrival or Departure lounges, waiting patiently till their passports are officially stamped by Emigration and Immigration officers.

Although no one takes notice of such day to day happenings the sleuths from the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) kept an eye on passengers arriving at the BIA last week.

They waited patiently that afternoon for the arrival of two men and a woman from Chennai. They had credible information that the trio had smuggled a large quantity of heroin from Chennai and was on their way to Colombo.

Hawkish eyed sleuths after waiting for so long at the BIA lounge spotted a man and a woman carrying two large brief cases. The trio had arrived from a flight from Chennai that day. They were the people they were looking for that afternoon.

They waited patiently till the two men and the woman left the Arrival lounge and walked into the Customs lounge. It was at this stage they decided to approach the passengers and search them. The sleuths after formally introducing themselves politely requested the two men and the woman to open their brief cases. The passengers however did not show any excitement at this stage. The sleuths did not find anything incriminating after searching their bags.

But an intense search eventually revealed what they were looking for. They found two packets concealed in two false bottoms of the brief cases. When they finally opened up the two packets they found 3 kilos of the brown sugar variety of heroin with a street value of Rs 12 million.

The suspects were immediately taken into custody with the haul of heroin. After an initial interrogation they were whisked away to the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) Head office for further investigations.

Police subsequently came to know the main suspect was a drug dealer who had travelled to India several times this year. This was the biggest haul of heroine detected by the PNB officers at the airport this year. On a previous occasion the Customs too had detected a large quantity of heroin. Thereafter the three suspects taken into custody were produced before the Negombo Magistrate Courts and remanded till investigations are over.

Following the arrest of three persons, a team of PNB sleuths rushed to Kandy town last week and took position near the clock Tower. The sleuths were tipped off that a businessman had promised to deliver a package of heroin to a local dealer. It was around noon when sleuths waited in ambush patiently for the arrival of the suspect.

Then all of a sudden a car pulled alongside the clock tower and a man emerged from it. But he was not the main suspect they were looking for. The sleuths noticed that there were other men in the car as well. They saw the main suspect flanked by a body guards.

The suspect was a heroin dealer masquerading as a owner of a Rent-A Car service in the Central province. It was at this stage PNB sleuths decided to close in and arrest the man. On a previous occasion they had trailed the man but could not catch him. This was the most appropriate time to arrest him they thought. The sleuths then rushed in and arrested the people in the car. There were four of them in the car with the driver.

After searching the car they found 100 grams of heroin worth about Rs 500,000. The sleuths arrested the four men along with another three people in connection with the heroin deal. They also seized the motor vehicle as well. The suspects were later produced in court and remanded till investigations are over.

According to PNB sources heroin traffickers adopt various methods of concealment from time to time to by pass law enforcement authorities. The most common thing is to have the heroin wrapped in polythene and gum tape concealed in their bodies. There were occasions when they found heroine concealed in false bottoms of shoes and travelling bags.

According to PNB figures 21 Sri Lankans had been arrested in Maldives, India and USA in 2006 for heroin related offences. During the same period seven foreign nationals including British, French German, Pakistani, Maldivian, and an Indian were arrested in Sri Lanka for heroin related offences.

The number of locals and foreign nationals arrested in Sri Lanka during the same period was 12,551. Of which 12,057 were males and 494 were females. The quantity of heroin detected by the Sri Lanka Police, the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB), the Sri Lanka Customs and the Excise Department for 2006 was 65 kilograms.

The biggest detection of heroin was in Vavuniya when a consignment of 22 kilograms and 447 grams were detected. The second biggest detection was made at Chilaw during the same period when 14 kilograms were detected. The street value of heroin in the local market during this period varied from Rs. 2,400.000 to 2,800.000 per kilogram from January to December. During this year 10,557 persons were convicted for heroin offenses.

In June this year the PNB tipped off the Maldivian authorities who arrested a man carrying 7.8 kilograms of heroin with him with a street value of US dollars 2.7 million.

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