Nine bus drivers and conductors were arrested with narcotics at the Makumbura Multimodal Transport Centre on Monday after police found evidence that they had been using illegal drugs.
Investigations established that the suspects had consumed a range of narcotics, including cannabis, police said. All nine are to be produced before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court for further legal proceedings.
NewsFirst did not report the ages of those arrested, whether they worked for the Sri Lanka Transport Board or private operators, or the quantity of drugs recovered.
The largest single haul in a months-long campaign
The arrests are the biggest reported in one operation since a national screening programme for public transport crews began, and they follow a steady run of smaller cases in the Colombo district and beyond.
A bus driver and three conductors were arrested at Padukka on August 12, after more than 100 crew were tested in a joint operation by the National Transport Medical Institute and police. Drivers were screened at Tangalle days later, and earlier rounds took in Kadawatha, Kalutara and Horana.
NTMI Chairman Professor Clifford Perera said this month that close to 10% of crews screened across the Western, Southern, North Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces had tested positive.
Makumbura, at Kottawa on the edge of the Southern Expressway, is one of the busiest interchanges in the network and has been used as a base for the mobile testing programme since it launched. Monday’s operation differs from the routine screenings in one respect: the nine were arrested in possession of narcotics rather than simply returning positive tests.
As of Tuesday evening, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the arrests.
