Officers of the Range Forest Office in Kamburupitiya, Deniyaya Police Special Task Force together with Mawarala Police jointly raided a Wallapatta oil extraction spot which had been illegally maintained for a long time in a house in Mawarala, Gombaddala, yesterday evening.
A 40-year-old man was arrested with the equipment used to extract Wallapatta oil along with a 1,000 kilos of Wallapatta plant parts.
The raid was carried out following the tip-off received by the Range Forest Office in Kamburupitiya.It is alleged that the extracted Wallapatta oil has been sold at high prices and the extraction of Wallapatta oil has been carried out very secretly in the house in a way that the security forces do not suspect. The site officials said that the quantity and value of the Wallapatta plant parts taken into custody have not been calculated yet.
A.P.Dayachandra