Police arrested 490 people on suspicion after inspecting 26,868 individuals during island-wide crime and drug prevention operations conducted on Tuesday, the Police Media Division said.
Hiru News reported that the operation was run at division level, covering every regional police station, on the instructions of the Inspector General of Police.
Of those detained, 24 were directly identified as being involved in criminal activity. Ada Derana reported that 228 people wanted under day warrants and a further 148 wanted under open warrants were also arrested.
Two accounts of the warrant figures
The outlets do not agree on how those warrant arrests break down. Hiru News gave a single figure of 228 “open warrant holders” and did not mention the 148, while Ada Derana separated day warrants from open warrants. Day warrants and open warrants are distinct instruments, and neither outlet addressed the other’s framing.
A second discrepancy runs through the traffic figures. Both outlets carry the same number — 4,036 — but Ada Derana described it as legal action initiated for various traffic offences, while Hiru reported it as arrests for traffic and other offences. The two are materially different outcomes.
Both agree that 37 people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and 92 for reckless driving.
A separate anti-drug drive the same day
Police Headquarters reported a second, parallel operation on the same date under the “Ratama Ekata” programme, in which 726 suspects were arrested in island-wide anti-drug raids, Hiru News said. Three of them are being held and questioned under detention, and two were directed for rehabilitation.
The raids were counted as 222 for heroin, 287 for ice, 161 for cannabis and 54 for other narcotics including pills, kush and hashish — 724 raids in total, against 726 suspects. Neither report set out how the two operations relate to each other, or whether any arrests are counted in both.
Against the recent run of figures
The daily totals are released as a rolling count from the sustained national crackdown rather than as the product of any single raid, and they move from day to day. Tuesday’s sweep was smaller than the operation on August 10, which produced 587 arrests from 27,773 people inspected, on a slightly smaller number of inspections.
Neither report gave a regional breakdown, identified the divisions involved, or named a quoting officer.
