Another major drug bust by Navy in the high seas

The foreign vessel carrying a load of narcotic drugs which was intercepted by the Sri Lanka Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) SLNS Sayura 463 nautical miles off the Southern Coast around 9.30 am on Saturday (28) was brought to the Dikovita Harbour along with the suspects this morning (01).

The Navy had intercepted the foreign vessel without a flag state on the international seas and upon inspection found 605 kg of Methamphetamine known as ICE and 579kg another new drug previously unheard of in Sri Lanka known as Ketamine.

In addition, the Navy also found 200 packets of Babool along with 100g of unidentified narcotic pills.

The value of the ICE alone has been estimated at around Rs. 6050 million. The Navy had arrested none (09) Pakistani Nationals who were on board the vessel. This is the highest amount of drugs that has been seized so far during operations at sea.

The Navy stated that this is the third international vessel detected with drugs over the past three months. Previously, the Navy had seized two vessels on February 22 and 25 which was found to be transporting narcotic drugs to Sri Lanka. A Sri Lankan fishing vessel was also taken into custody during this detection and 16 foreign nationals and five Sri Lankans were arrested. In addition, another six persons were arrested from the South of Sri Lanka for their involvement in transporting these drugs.

During last year, 3653 kg of Kerala Cannabis, 762kg Heroin and 03 kg Methamphetamine (ICE) while during the first three months of this year (2020) alone 2,339kg of Kerala Cannabis, 739kg of ICE, 438kg Heroin and 579kg of Ketamine had been seized.

The Navy Commander Vice Admiral Piyal de Silva and members of the Police Narcotics Bureau were present at the Dikovita Harbour when the vessel carrying the drugs was escorted in and The Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne was also present to inspect the haul of drugs taken into custody by the Navy.  

The investigations and legal procedures regarding this vessel and the nine arrested suspects would be handled by the Police Narcotics Bureau.

The Navy is constantly on alert regarding such vessels transporting drugs to the country using satellite technology. The Navy is assisting the police in nabbing these drug peddlers both local and foreign. The Navy warned the local fishermen to engage in their fishing activities without getting lured into these illegal drug operations.