The Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) is on alert that Sri Lanka is being used as a transit point for smuggling cocaine to other countries.
PNB Director Nanayakkara told the Sunday Times that, in addition, there was suspicion that a certain amount of cocaine was also being used in Sri Lanka.
He said special teams have been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to detect the attempts.
Within the past two weeks, two major drug rackets have been detected at the BIA. One detection was made on February 3, where a Thai girl was arrested along with 1.7 kg of cocaine, while in a second detection on Thursday, a Filipino girl was arrested with 3.3 kg of cocaine.
Both had similar travel patterns and had been to Sri Lanka earlier. Both, the Filipino girl and the Thai woman are reported to have been used by the same agent for the operation.
According to recent information, Sri Lanka has also been used as a transit point involving other countries such as Brazil, Peru, Thailand and Nigeria. A gramme of cocaine has a street value of Rs. 15,000 and the street value of the two detections made recently was more than Rs. 75 million. |
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