Police say assets worth about Rs. 6 billion belonging to organised crime figures and drug traffickers have been frozen across 113 investigations since the current government took office, a figure that sits Rs. 2.1 billion above the total the same force gave at a media briefing four days earlier.
Of the total, Rs. 5,423 million is held by 102 drug traffickers and organised crime figures, Rs. 209 million by three major organised criminals, and Rs. 367 million by eight suspects linked to pyramid schemes, explosives offences, child abuse and other frauds, NewsFirst reported. Hiru News carried the same three figures, attributed them to the Illegal Assets Investigation Division — which NewsFirst did not name — and dated the count from 21 September 2024.
What was frozen
NewsFirst published a full itemisation: 55 houses (Rs. 1,437m), 138 acres of land (Rs. 1,322m), 142 vehicles (Rs. 1,171m), cash of Rs. 461m, 27 bank accounts (Rs. 428m), 12 multi-day fishing vessels (Rs. 305m), eight buildings (Rs. 250m), 21 shops and commercial units (Rs. 214m), gold worth Rs. 168m and other property worth Rs. 239m.
Those ten lines sum to Rs. 5,995 million, consistent with the Rs. 6 billion headline; the three category figures add to Rs. 5,999 million, within rounding.
Two details differ between the outlets. NewsFirst gives 138 acres of land where Hiru gives 136. And where NewsFirst values the gold at Rs. 168 million, Hiru gives its weight as 2 kilograms and 140 grams — roughly Rs. 78 million a kilogram, well above prevailing bullion prices, suggesting the Rs. 168m line covers more than the metal Hiru weighed.
The number moved by Rs. 2.1 billion in four days
On Tuesday, Police Media Spokesperson ASP F.U. Wootler told a briefing in Colombo that police had moved against Rs. 3,878 million in criminal assets over three years — Rs. 1,549m in 2024, Rs. 1,549m in 2025 and Rs. 839m so far in 2026.
That window is the wider of the two — three calendar years against Hiru’s count from 21 September 2024 — yet it produces the smaller total. The two may be measuring different stages of the same process, Tuesday’s figure covering property entering State ownership through the courts and Saturday’s property merely frozen, but neither briefing says so.
Red Notices
Sri Lanka Police hold 236 active Interpol Red Notices, 96 of them for organised criminals, Ada Derana reported. Hiru dates that total to 18 August, a cut-off the others omit. NewsFirst said a further 93 were issued to secure other extraditions, leaving 47 of the 236 unaccounted for.
Sixty-six suspects have been returned since the government took office, 28 under Red Notices and 38 without — the 38 matching Tuesday’s briefing exactly. Ada Derana offers a third window: 37 organised crime suspects returned since February 2025.
Hiru located 35 of the 96 wanted men abroad — 18 in the United Arab Emirates, 11 in India, and one each in the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Canada and Italy. Those account for 34; the 35th country is not named.
The programme runs alongside individual freezing orders, including Rs. 70 million linked to the alleged trafficker Naufer Jesudasan and a sweep covering 25 organised crime and drug figures.
