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Detection of ecstasy pills: Customs seeks Belgium’s help to track down the sender
Sri Lanka Customs’ Central Intelligence Directorate will reach out to its counterparts in Belgium on the possibility of tracking down those responsible for sending the largest stock of ecstasy pills ever recovered by a Sri Lankan agency.
Customs has valued the drugs, found from the Central Mail Exchange (CME) at Rs 135 million.
“Sri Lanka Customs routinely shares intelligence with its counterparts in other countries and given how large the stock of seized drugs is, it will be informing officials in Belgium regarding the find and request their assistance to track down the sender of the drugs,” Customs’ Additional Director General and Spokesman Sunil Jayaratne told the Sunday Times.
Meanwhile, also at the CME, Customs officials recovered 14 kilograms of ‘Khat’ narcotics that had come in several small packets.
The stock of 18,000 ecstasy pills, weighing 9 kilograms, were found hidden inside packets of cat food along with some other personal effects, including chocolates. Customs officials said the parcels had been mailed from Belgium to a recipient with an address in Colombo 5. The Colombo address has now been found to be fake.
No person had come to the CME to claim the parcel that had been mailed from Belgium.
The local investigation has now been handed over to the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) which will look to identify who was supposed to pick up the drugs once they reach Sri Lanka. No arrests had been made in connection with the incident up until yesterday.
Meanwhile, four suspects are being held in connection with the detection of narcotics in a multi-day fishing trawler on January 4. The drugs, comprising 100 kilograms of ‘ICE’ and 80 kilograms of hashish, were found when naval vessels intercepted the trawler. The street valued of the stock was estimated to be more than Rs 600 million.
The monitoring of the vessel, interception and arrests were conducted by the Sri Lanka Navy while the PNB provided intelligence, Navy Spokesman Captain Indika de Silva said. The probe has now been handed over to the PNB.