Customs busts Rs 3.5B Coke haul 200kg found at Orugodawatta container yard

By Methmalie Dissanayake and Premalal Wijeratne-2016-11-25

Customs officials yesterday detected a haul of almost 200 kg of cocaine with a street value of over Rs 3.5 billion, at the Orugodawatta Rank Container Terminal (RCT), Customs media spokesman Dharmasena Kahandawa said.

The cocaine was concealed in 10 containers of sugar imported from Brazil, as were other major hauls of cocaine in recent months. The ship carrying the containers had reached Colombo on 14 October. Kahandawa said the haul in 25kg packs, were concealed inside 8 large sacks of sugar. He added that Customs' investigators were trying to establish whether the cocaine was concealed inside the containers when they were loaded in Brazil or en route in Portugal.

Acting on information that the cocaine was stashed away in the sacks of sugar, Customs decided to impound 50 containers of sugar, imported from Brazil earlier this month. All these containers are subjected to several thorough investigations, using modern technology, he added.

The detection and probe were jointly launched by the Sri Lanka Customs, Excise Department, Police Narcotics Bureau and the Government Analyst's Department.

Breakthroughs in investigations carried out by the Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau in tandem with international narcotic authorities in recent months have proved that Sri Lanka has become a hub for a global distribution network for heroin, cocaine and Kerala cannabis,. Sri Lankan authorities within the past few months have detected over 400 kilograms of cocaine concealed inside sugar containers.The biggest consignment of cocaine recovered so far, weighing nearly 90kg with a street value of Rs.1.2 billion, was also concealed in a consignment of sugar. It was discovered by the Finance Ministry's Special Drug Raiding Unit on 14 June.