Action yet to be seen: Cocaine continues to traverse

No fresh arrests have been made even two weeks after the second haul of cocaine worth billions of rupees was busted in a sugar container. Different teams of investigators involved in the investigation are yet to crack the case, believed to be the largest cocaine smuggling racket uncovered in the country.

Government officials examining the seized cocaine

Investigators now suspect that the racket may have continued undetected at least for the last ten years, with the high-end drug being smuggled out of the country through Tea exports.

The second haul of cocaine smuggled into the country was uncovered when the customs officers carried out a manual inspection of the remaining 30 sugar containers.

“The stock was hidden in one of the sugar containers and was uncovered when the container was being emptied for its content. An individual present at the inspection had then called the Pelyiagoda police, and the Police Narcotic Bureau arrived soon after,” Head of Finance Ministry Special Narcotic Raid Unit, Wing Commander Ravi Jayasinghe said.

The importer of the container, Vasudewan, is currently in police custody after the first haul of cocaine valued at 2 billion rupees was uncovered from an earlier shipment last month. Finance Ministry Special Narcotic Raid Unit carried out the raid acting on a tip off received by one of the investigators in the unit.

The unit is no longer involved actively in the investigation after the case was handed over to the PNB. However, following the raid all shipments of the same sugar importing company have been manually inspected. The second batch of cocaine was uncovered hidden in one of these shipments.

Following repeated seizures of cocaine in sugar containers coming in from Brazil, the port has now been listed as a high risk port by Sri Lanka Customs. As a result, all shipments arriving in Sri Lanka from the port, especially, sugar containers will now undergo manual inspection.

“The scanners do not often detect cocaine in the containers, so the only way to do a thorough inspection is, manually,” explained Customs Spokesperson and Director Dharmasena Kahandawa. “Each container has close to 300 sacks of sugar and we have to empty the entire container if we are to be certain. This would be a tedious operation requiring manpower, but at this point we have no other option.”

Where was it meant for?

According to Wing Commander Jayasinghe, the first shipment which was uncovered was suspected to be re-routed to Italy. “The partner of the sugar company had gone to Italy when the shipment arrived here, so we believe that’s where it was headed,” he explained.

The culprit, who has been on the run, is now believed to be in India or Malaysia. However, the investigators are not certain where the second shipment was meant for. According to the information that Wing Commander Jayasinghe has received so far, the counterfeit goods were rerouted to European countries in containers shipping tea. However, the exact destination and network has not been mapped out, yet. The PNB too suspects the contents were meant to be smuggled out of the country. “The plan may have been to send the stocks to either a European destination or to Australia. We are not sure yet,” a source from Police Narcotics Bureau said. “However, the drugs were well packed and sealed in a manner that would preserve the contents for close on a year,” the source explained.

A gram of cocaine in Sri Lanka has a market value of Rs.20,000 to Rs30,000, and is regarded as a very high end drug, which has a very small customer base according to PNB sources. But, the Sri Lanka anti-narcotic Association suspects that the content was meant for local consumption. SLANA attributed the latest and repeated seizures of cocaine to a changing trend in Sri Lanka where drug abusers were moving away from Heroin.

Dr. Dharshani Gunayagoda, who heads the association, says, the latest haul of nearly 300 kg is of grave concern. “It’s worrying to find that we now have frequent hauls where even the quantity is on the incline,” she said, adding that since we don’t hear of consignments of cocaine from Sri Lanka being intercepted elsewhere, the shipments that are coming would have been for local consumption.

“Heroin used to be the preferred choice for its effect to make an individual drowsy and lethargic, but cocaine has the opposite effect, being a stimulant,” she said.