Whisky, wine and beer worth millions seized:

Online liquor sale racket busted

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

A local and international racket of selling alcohol online defying all laws and evading government taxes was busted for the first time in history when the Colombo Excise Department raided a famous gift ordering website recently.

The website which has a reputation especially among the Sri Lankan communities living overseas for sending various types of gifts, cakes, flowers, food items, garments and cosmetics to their local relatives and families has been engaged in selling various types of local and foreign liquors as well.

Anybody who has a credit or debit card can order an item online and make payment giving delivery details of the address in Sri Lanka and the service is obliged to deliver it to any part of the country.

Many Sri Lankans living abroad use this service to send gifts, cakes and flowers to their loved ones on special occasions such as birthdays and weddings by selecting from the range of gifts and items displayed on the website.

Not only those who live outside the country but even the locals can order anything and send it to a desired location by paying the due amount online. Likewise, anybody who has access to the internet and possess a bank card can purchase any type of liquor displayed on the website and get it delivered to the required address without any hassle.

A spokesman for the Excise Department, Superintendent Prabath Jayawickreme told the Sunday Observer that even an underaged teenager could order liquor through this system and get it delivered to him without the knowledge of his parents.

Excise officers inspecting the haul of liquor

According to the Excise Ordinance a licence or a permit is necessary to possess, transport or sell alcoholic beverages. Due to the concept of Mathata Thitha the Sri Lankan government has ceased issuing liquor licences to places that sell alcoholic products, to take away or consume within the premises.

The maximum amount of liquor that a person can possess or transport is ten bottles (750ml) or seven litres. Although a strict surveillance is not being maintained and many are not aware of it, a special permit ought to be obtained even to carry a stock of liquor exceeding the mentioned amount to a wedding ceremony or a party.

The aforesaid service had used its online purchasing mechanism as a brilliant method to sell alcoholic beverages under the nose of the law enforcing authorities without a licence. The raid was launched by the Excise Bureau of Special Operations (BSO) on information received by Excise Commissioner General Wasantha Hapuarachchi. The Excise BSO is a special unit in the department based in Colombo that has vested authority to conduct raids in any part of the country without permission sought from any other divisional authority.

The BSO carefully designed a plan to net those responsible for this illegal service. A decoy was appointed to surf the website and order a stock of alcoholic beverages to a party.

The Superintendent in charge of the Excise BSO Rohan Wijeratne said they ordered a stock of foreign liquor, cheese, chocolates and a bouquet of flowers to the value of Rs. 62,000. The ordered liquor included several bottles of foreign whisky and wine along with some beer.

Once the payment for the order was made online the service had agreed to deliver it to the place the decoy Excise sleuths requested. The person who brought the goods to deliver near the Hilton Jaic Tower in Slave Island was taken into custody by the Excise guards who were in civvies. The trishaw which was used to transport the contraband was also taken into custody by the officers.

After questioning the arrested person the Excise sleuths raided an office of the service located in the Liberty Plaza building. A sales executive who was in charge of accepting orders was also taken into custody following the raid.

According to the website the service has two other offices in Colombo 7 and Colombo 5 apart from its three international offices in United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

After questioning the Sales Executive the Excise officers raided the distribution centre of the service in Kirulapone. There the officers hit the jackpot where a large stock of local and foreign liquor worth over Rs. 1 million was recovered which had been stored for distribution. The suspects did not possess a valid licence to sell liquor and failed to produce any legal documents when demanded, to justify their possession of liquor.

The Excise team also found five gift hampers kept ready for distribution, four of which contained alcoholic beverages.

Initial investigations revealed that the company who boasts to be Sri Lanka’s largest online shop is receiving about 500 orders daily, internationally and locally and are ready to deliver it to the farthest locations of the country with special delivery charges. The two suspects were produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate and imposed a fine of Rs. 400,000. The seized stock of liquor was confiscated and destroyed. The suspect had told the investigators that they had purchased the liquor from the local market.

They have sold expensive foreign liquor brands such as Johhny Walker Black Label, Chivas Regal, VSOP Cognac, Absolute Vodka, Champaign, Tequila, a number of wines and beers in the price range of 20 USD to 70 USD.

The detection was conducted by the Excise BSO team led by Superintendent Rohan Wijeratne, OIC Excise BSO Rosmand Fernando, Excise Inspectors Thilak and Ranaweera, Excise Sergeant Major Sarath, Excise Sergeants Lakmal, Wijesinghe, Excise Guards Ratnayake, Ukwatta, Ravi, Liyanage and Excise Driver Jayantha under the special instructions of Deputy Excise Commissioner (Revenue) A Bodaragama and Deputy Excise Commissioner (Crimes) Wasantha Kumara.