Two people have been arrested for allegedly transporting narcotics along the Southern Expressway, police said on Tuesday (18).
Kadawatha Police received information that drugs were being moved through the Kadawatha entrance of the expressway. The two were arrested at the Kadawatha exit while allegedly carrying “Kush” cannabis and narcotic pills known as “mushrooms” in a car.
The driver produced a police identity card
During questioning, the driver claimed to be a serving police officer and produced a police identity card identifying him as a Police Inspector, according to police.
Further investigation established that he was a former Police Sub-Inspector from Nagahaduwa, Payagala, who had been involved in a gold smuggling racket and left the police service in 2024. Police also described him as a 30-year-old former Police Narcotics Bureau officer who is in possession of an Interpol identity card. Ada Derana did not reconcile the two descriptions of his former posting.
Uniforms and ammunition recovered at his home
A subsequent search of the suspect’s residence recovered 16 police uniforms, 68 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 12 T-56 rounds and six other rounds of ammunition.
Also seized were 600 foreign-manufactured cigarettes, two police pocket notebooks, two temporary driving licences, eight mobile phones, two weighing scales, a large machete, four pistol holsters and an air revolver. Police listed handcuffs twice in the inventory, as five packs and as five individual sets, without clarifying the total.
The suspect was due to be produced before the Mahara Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where police were expected to seek a detention order to investigate his alleged links to a drug trafficking network.
Police did not disclose the quantity of drugs seized, or any details of the second person arrested.
Context
The case is the second recent instance of criminal activity conducted behind a police identity. In August, villagers near Welipenna seized a suspect after a gang posing as police robbed a home.
Narcotics dominate the state’s forensic caseload: the Acting Government Analyst said this week that drugs account for 70% of the department’s reports, with remand cases prioritised to speed up court proceedings.
