PUBLIC TRANSPORT - MODUS OPERANDI OF DRUG COURIERS

Heroin smuggling across the Palk Strait will come under intense
scrutiny of both the Indian government and the Police Narcotics Bureau
(PNB). The Indian authorities have indicated their willingness to
share intelligence relating to heroin smuggling with their Sri Lankan
counterparts.

DIG, Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) Jayantha Wickremaratne said a top
Indian civil administrator who oversees anti-narcotic operations in
India had pledged his support to the PNB to crackdown heroin smuggling
from within the Indian territories. DIG Wickremaratne had met him in
Bangkok while attending a conference of South Asian law enforcement
agencies last week. He said the Indian authorities are keeping a tab
on the activities of several Sri Lankan drug dealers operating on
Indian soil.

Director Police Narcotics Bureau, SSP, Pujit Jayasundera said that
heroin is transported from Tuticorin to Chennnai by road and
thereafter it is smuggled to Mannar via the Palk strait. The stuff is
then brought to Colombo by drug couriers using public transport as few
such vehicles are searched today by security personnel. Drug
traffickers use the Palk Strait- Mannar route after the government
ceased hostilities with the LTTE.

He said several top rung drug dealers have been rounded up following
the arrest of Jesudasan's gang and Samsudeen from his Ward Place
residence with 23 kg of heroin. Meanwhile the PNB is keeping a close
tab on the activities of 53 drug barons in the country, he said.

DIG Wickremaratna who now heads of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB)
has successfully netted in most wanted drug dealers in a short span of
one month. The PNB officials during the last two months have seized
heroin worth over Rs. 50 million in raids conducted in Colombo and its
suburbs.

Director Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) SSP Pujit Jayasundera said that
three persons were arrested last Tuesday following the detection of 16
grams of heroin from a residence at Baseline Road Borella. PNB
officers busted up a heroin distributing centre at Kibula-ela in
Mutuwal area following the arrest of a drug kingpin along with two
persons. Police found 1 kg and 83 grams of heroin (Brown sugar
variety) at a residence along with .450 revolver and 526 rounds of
ammunition used for 9 mm pistols and revolvers.

The Mutuwal centre had supplied heroin to addicts in Colombo North and
the Colombo Central during the last few years. Even police stations
around Kibula-Ela area turned a blind eye to this operation due to
kingpins influence with politicians. Police are also looking for
another drug kingpin named Naushad who had gone into hiding after the
Kibula-ela bust up. Naushad who operates from Wattala has been
supplying heroin to residents in Wattala and Hendala areas, police
said.

Meanwhile, the PNB has launched an inquiry as to how a drug dealer
came to possess a .450 revolver with a haul of ammunition. "We have
reason to believe that the drug trade is related to northern
separatist movement and obviously the revolver and the ammunition may
have come from that part of the region." a Senior Police officer said.

Meanwhile, on a tip off last week PNB sleuths kept a watchful eye on a
Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) bus plying from Mannar to Pettah bus.
The bus had arrived in Colombo around 2.30. a.m. The sleuths waited
patiently to see what was going on while the CTB driver alighted from
the bus and went to a telephone booth nearby and made a call. A few
minutes later he returned to the bus and retrieved a parcel from
underneath the drivers seat when the police arrested him. The parcel
contained 2 kgs and 834 grams of heroin (brown sugar variety) worth
Rs. 7.6 million.

Meanwhile, an investigation launched by the PNB has revealed that a
top drug baron arrested recently has acquired the following movable
and immovable properties. One unregistered Benz car, a Pugoet car, A
Nissan, a 3-wheeler, a residence in Colpetty. a shop at Pannala. a
garment factory at Pannala. and lands at Pannala and
Athurugiriya.

A survey carried by the PNB has found that there are over 10,000 drug
addicts in Colombo alone who spend nearly Rs 500 a day on drugs. Thus
making it a lucrative business drug dealers.