Sri Lankan police have seized 300 kg of heroin, worth about $17 million, at a parking lot in the heart of the city. Two persons were arrested following what is said to be a record haul of the narcotic.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara told media persons that when personnel of the Narcotics Bureau and the police Special Task Force raided a mall car park on Saturday, they found two vans loaded with heroin, packed in nearly 300 plastic bags.
In a tweet, President Maithripala Sirisena commended the team that led the seizure. “My congratulations to the Police #Narcotic Bureau & the #STF personnel who successfully seized the largest consignment of illicit drugs in our history. Behalf of the future of our beloved children, I thank you and I assure my fullest support on achieving this noble purpose,” he said. The development comes amid heightening concern over the drug menace facing the island. Mr. Sirisena has vowed to hang drug traffickers, signalling the controversial revival of the death penalty after a four-decade-long moratorium.
The Philippine example
Mr. Sirisena, who was in Philippines this January, had praised President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, and is said to be modelling Sri Lanka’s own crackdown on the Philippines’s widely-criticised approach. Last year too, Mr. Sirisena made a similar announcement in the wake of a 100 kg-seizure of heroin.
Even as authorities flag concerns that Sri Lanka could become a transit point for narcotics trade in Asia, police have arrested over 50 people in the past six months in connection on drug trafficking charges, according to media reports.