Mystery of the heavy shoes

Police Narcotics Bureau traces 'heels' of heroin

Despite stringent laws against drug trafficking, heroin smuggling across cross boarders in South Asia goes on unabated due to enormous profits made by drug barons and drug couriers.

Last Tuesday Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) officers working at the Bandaranike International Airport (BIA) noticed the behaviour of a suspicious Sri Lankan who had arrived by the UL 122 flight from Chennai. The time was around 11.30. a.m.

The man thereafter arrived at the Customs desk for clearance. The customs after a routine check did not find anything incriminating in the baggage and the man was cleared. However the Narcotics sleuths kept a wary eye on the movements of the passenger. They approached him when he was about to cross over to the passenger lounge. The OIC PNB Inspector Siriwardena after introducing himself told the passenger that they wanted to search his baggage.

The man however did not show any resistance but instead co-operated with the police. He opened his baggage and showed the contents to the sleuths, but strange enough nothing incriminating was found. There was nothing suspicious in his personnal belongings like clothing and four pairs of shoes.

But OIC of the narcotics unit at the airport was a hard boiled cop with years of experience behind him. He has a knack for detecting passengers carrying heroin concealed in the false bottom of their baggage. In fact he had detected several such cases previously. Intuition told him the Sri Lankan passenger wasn't just an ordinary businessman. He was from Maligawatte and had made several trips to India before.

What was he dealing with, he pondered for a moment? The PNB sleuths who were not satisfied that there wasn't anything incriminating began inspecting the items in the baggage one by one, more closely. Naturally their attention was drawn to the four pairs of shoes found in the baggage.

Why was this man carrying four pairs of shoes instead of one pair? The shoes too didn't appear normal for they weighed much more. A bright idea suddenly flashed across the mind of a sleuth. Experience had shown him that heroin was smuggled in the past in false bottoms of bags, in shoes etc.

So an attempt was made to dismantle the heels of the shoes. After several attempts, they succeeded in removing the heels and found to their disbelief false bottoms inside the shoes.

The sleuths dug into the cavities and found to their horror slabs of heroin (brown sugar variety) neatly packed inside. They pulled out the stuff and after weighing it found, 1 kilo and 638 grams of the brown sugar variety of heroin.

According to the Director of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB), Senior Supdt. of Police (SSP) M.K. Sugathadasa, the haul has a street value of more than Rs. 70 lakhs. The suspect admitted that on two previous occasions he had smuggled heroin from India.

"We have questioned the suspect about his Indian contacts and will keep the Indian narcotics officials informed." he said. The suspect was taken before court and was detained under Detention Orders till investigations are completed.

Acting on a tip off, PNB sleuths last week lay on ambush and intercepted a Tri-Shaw at Wattala which was proceeding towards Colombo.

After searching the passengers police found a parcel containing 1 kilo and 24 grams of heroin with a street value of Rs. 6 million rupees. The four persons were taken before court and detained under detention orders. An investigation has been launched to ascertain from whom they purchased the drugs.

Director Police Narcotics Bureau SSP. M.K. Sugathadasa said during the first quarter of 2006 Police and law enforcement agencies had arrested 3482 persons in connection with drug related offences. Altogether 237 Sri Lankans involved in drug related offences have fled the country during the past few years. 213 Sri Lankan's fled to India while 21 persons were in Maldives.

Two persons have fled to Pakistan while one is a citizen of Nepal. Persons arrested by the Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies during the 1993-2006 period are as follows. 89 Pakistanis, 2 Nepalese, 1 Maldivian, 82 Indians. It is revealed that around 1200 -2000 kilos of heroin is smuggled to Sri Lanka annually.