Forest a haven for marijuana dealers
 Nikawewa
at Demodera, Mal-Aara area is a wild elephant infested habitat located
12 miles deep in the thick jungles of Thanamalwila.
Even the native folk fear to tread in the jungle owing to frequent
wild elephant attacks on them that have left many dead.
But, the jungle had been a haven for illicit drug dealers who
cultivate cannabis - sativa (marijuana) although Nikawewa has been a
vast land that came under State forest conservation.
But, over the years corrupt State officials have turned a blind eye
to the activities of illicit drug dealers and growers of marijuana on
State reservations. The officials even go an extra mile to protect these
men from prosecution by soliciting huge bribes.
Last Monday an anonymous caller informed Director, Central Anti-Vice
Striking Force (CAVSF) at Walana, Panadura and said that he knew a great
deal about the flow of marijuana to the Western Province.
The drug trade was dominated by wealthy businessmen in the Western
Province who employed couriers to bring it down to Colombo.
The man gave intricate details of the operation to the Director
Central Anti-Vice Striking Force. He said the dried and packed marijuana
was concealed among vegetables and other produce and smuggled here.
“Sometimes they bury it in sand transported in lorries all the way from
Mawu-Aara village to Colombo.”
Racket surfaced
When details of the marijuana smuggling racket surfaced it was
brought to the notice of IGP Jayantha Wickramaratna. He then ordered DIG
Staff, D.A. De Fonseka to track down the drug trafficking operation and
arrest the suspects.
Thereafter, OIC Central Anti-Vice Striking Force (CAVSF) Inspector
Duminda Balasooriya and his policemen were told to proceed to Nikawewa
and conduct a raid on the marijuana plantation and arrest the suspects.
The policemen clad in civil clothes left Panadura on a day last week
in the dead of the night and arrived at Nikawewa in the wee hours of the
morning.
It was pitch dark when they entered the Nikawewa State reservation.
They were in for a surprise when confronted by a herd of marauding
elephants about to charge at them. But when the policemen retreated from
the jungle, the elephants too disappeared after a couple of hours.
When day break appeared the policemen trudged back to the jungle and
found a vast acreage of State land full of marijuana plants. Some plants
were as tall as 6-7 feet.
There were altogether 24,000 plants in a four acre plot. Five men
tending to the plants in the State reservation were arrested following
the discovery of 145 kilograms of dried ganja packed and ready to be
transported to the Western Province.
A bumper crop of the cannabis was to be harvested and despatched to
Western Province before the rainy season began. The suspects, while
being questioned, said that marijuana was transported to a location at
Biyagama for storage. The stuff was distributed in Colombo and elsewhere
from this location, they confessed.
Arrested
The Police Media Spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunesekera said unlike raids
conducted in the past on ganja chenas where no suspects were arrested,
five suspects had been arrested on this occasion. The suspects have been
handed over to the Thanamalwila Police Station to be produced in court.
The marijuana found in the forest reservation has been valued at Rs. 7
million, Police said.
Following a raid last December on an eight acre marijuana (ganja)
plantation in the jungles off Udawalawa, Sooriya-Aara, three suspects
were taken into custody by the Cental Anti-Vice Striking Force (CAVSF).
According to the Central Anti-Vice Striking Force, about fifteen
policemen who took part in the raid uprooted more than 25,000 plants of
marijuana worth Rs. 8 million and set them on fire.
Police raided a house of a wealthy businessman at Udawalawa and found
31 parcels containing dried up ganja in a room. Each packet had weighing
one kilogram was neatly packed in polythene cover ready to be despatched
to Colombo. |
