COLOMBO: Sri Lankan naval forces have made a record drug seizure after finding more than 800 kilograms of heroin and crystal methamphetamine on a fishing vessel off the country’s west coast.
The island nation of 22 million people is known as a hub for drug trafficking.
There has been an increase in drug-related incidents in recent years, with about 162,000 people arrested in 2023 for such offenses, government data showed. In 2017, the number was about 81,000.
In a special operation on the high seas on Saturday morning, the Sri Lanka Navy confiscated a multi-day fishing trawler and arrested seven suspects.
“This is the largest amount of drugs caught by the Sri Lankan navy from a multi-day Sri Lankan fishing trawler,” Sri Lanka Navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath told Arab News on Sunday.
They were brought to Dikkowita Harbor, about 10 kilometers north of the capital Colombo, for an inspection carried out by the Police Narcotic Bureau.
“They scaled them and found ICE (crystal meth), approximately more than 671 kilograms, and heroin approximately more than 191 kilograms,” Sampath said.
The drugs were “meticulously hidden” in the multi-day fishing trawler, the navy said in a statement.
Because investigations are still ongoing, authorities have yet to confirm the origin and destination of the trawler used to transport the drugs.
The Sri Lanka Navy said it has been working with local and international intelligence agencies to tighten “its grip on criminal networks operating” in Sri Lankan waters.
“No illegal substances, particularly narcotics, will be allowed to enter the country via sea routes,” the navy statement read.
“Smuggling of narcotics disguised as fishing operations, or any attempt to aid and abet such activities, will be met with strict action.”
Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who took office in September, has called on authorities to scale up efforts to “suppress drug trafficking” since late last year.
In a discussion with police chiefs from the Western Province — the country’s most densely populated — last month, he said he was committed to “eliminate organized crime and drug abuse” in the country.
