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Another
human-smuggling racket uncovered Their arrest lead the Police to the masterminds behind the racket – two men residing in Colombo who have been engaged in the human -smuggling racket by helping prospective clients to obtain the visas by providing them with documents such as bank statements, savings account pass books, employment certificates and land deeds. According to senior CID investigators the High Commission officials had tipped the police when they found the four youths who handed in their visa applications to be acting in a suspicious manner. Police had been on the alert after the arrest of 25 Sri Lankans at the Katunayake airport in September who were about to board a SriLankan airlines flight to London. They were also caught having passports issued to others.
In connection with the Katunayake airport arrest, a family of five consisting of the parents and their three daughters were arrested in Kandy on allegations of having sold their five passports at Rs. 500,000 each to a person involved in the human trafficking racket. But during police interrogation the suspects had said the passports had been stolen. Similarly when Police questioned the legitimate owners of the passports, they claimed their travel documents were either lost or stolen. However investigations have revealed that the police complaints reporting the loss of their passports by the owners had coincided with the arrest of the persons at the Katunayake airport. The CID has begun recording statements from several SriLankan airlines’ employees to ascertain whether they were in any way connected to the human smuggling racket. The CID is with the advice of the AG's department looking into the possibility of pressing charges against those who sell their passports bearing valid visas to illegal immigrants. |
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