Sri Lanka Customs has issued a public warning to air travellers not to accept or carry parcels or luggage belonging to other people, saying smugglers are using unwitting passengers to move narcotics.
Customs Media Spokesperson Chandana Punchihewa said ordinary travellers face a severe risk of being drawn into serious crimes without any knowledge of what they are carrying.
Smugglers exploit even close relatives and friends without their knowledge, Punchihewa said. He cited a recent case in which an attempt was made to import a consignment of narcotics under the name of a 19-year-old.
He said traffickers conceal drugs so carefully that they cannot easily be detected even by someone who inspects the luggage themselves — meaning a passenger’s own check of a bag offers little protection.
Punchihewa also urged the public to think carefully about the motive behind any offer of a free air ticket, a common recruitment tactic used to move couriers across borders.
Customs stressed that travellers should not agree to transport goods or parcels belonging to others under any circumstances, noting that many countries impose severe penalties for drug trafficking, including the death penalty.
The warning follows a series of narcotics detections at Bandaranaike International Airport this year, and lands the same week that Indonesian authorities arrested a Malaysian pilot over an alleged 26kg MDMA smuggling attempt — a reminder of how routinely commercial aviation is targeted by trafficking networks across the region.
Hiru News did not report whether the 19-year-old named in the recent case has been arrested or cleared.
