Sri Lankan police have seized 133kg of drugs and arrested 12 people suspected to have linked to the international drug trade so far this year as the country battles drug smuggling, an official said yesterday.
Police took into custody 9kg of heroin in the town of Nedimala, on the outskirts of capital Colombo when a suspect was transporting the stash, police spokesman Ajith Rohana told reporters.
The fresh arrest came after questioning suspects arrested in a 85kg bust on June 12, Rohana added.
“We have released photographs of one suspect and issued an Interpol red notice on a
second suspect,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s government in January expressed fear the island is becoming a transshipment hub for drugs after police records revealed 53,000 people had been arrested for drug
offences in 2013.
Arrests have increased in 2013 as a result of increased crackdowns, police said in a statement, adding that most arrests were for possessing marijuana.
Police also noted that they had detained about 351kg of hard drugs in 2013, which is a massive increase from 15kg detected in 2012. In August 2013 customs detected 262kg of heroin, which was reported to be the largest detection in South Asia.
“Such large quantities suggest that the drugs are not for internal consumption but to be shipped elsewhere,” government spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters.
Since 2012 special police teams have been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to detect smuggling bids.
Sri Lanka has been used as a transit point involving other countries such as Brazil, Peru, Thailand and Nigeria.
In 2011 the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board warned that the country was under increasing threat from drug smuggling in its annual report. Over 60 foreigners have been arrested for drug smuggling in the last five years, the report added.
