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Another bid to ship dirty tea foiled
By Chris Kamalendran
Another major racket of smuggling out substandard tea to international markets has been busted amidst growing evidence that the illegal business is flourishing with political patronage.

More than 67,000 kilograms of substandard tea ready to be shipped to Iraq were detected by the Colombo Crime Division on a tip-off and a subsequent inquiry led to the arrest of eight persons from warehouses in Mattakkuliya.

The raid, the second in as many weeks, brought to surface another modus operandi of racketeer businessmen in exporting sub-standard tea to the international market.

According to investigations led by Colombo Crime Division Chief D. S. Lugoda, the racketeers replace bags of good quality teas with bags containing sub-standard tea after Tea Commission officials examine and certify that the tea is good and seal the container.

The racketeers break the seal, unload the bags of good tea and replace them with identical bags containing sub-standard tea and then reseal the containers, using improvised devices.

On Friday, CCD and Tea Commission officials raided two containers, which were sealed the previous day after their contents were checked and certified. The officials found that the bags contained substandard tea.

After the raid police also detained two lorries carrying substandard tea stocks.
Last week more than 200,000 kilograms of substandard tea were detected from five warehouses - four in Colombo and one in Kandy.

SSP Lugoda said that after last week's raid, there were several attempts by politicos to get the arrested persons released while Tea Commission officials received death threats from anonymous callers.

Five persons who were arrested in connection with the first raid have been remanded till February 3. However, the millionaire crooks who are behind the racket are yet to be arrested.

Reputed tea traders, expressing concern over the racket, have called on the police to act decisively and arrest the culprits irrespective of their political patronage before the racketeers tarnish Sri Lanka's image as the country that produces and exports the world's best tea.

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