A man transporting drugs from Colombo to Hatton has been arrested at the Kalugala roadblock, the Polpitiya Police said.
The arrest was made on Sunday afternoon, September 6, Hiru News reported. The suspect, a resident of Wanarajah Estate in Dikoya, Hatton, was stopped while travelling in a hired three-wheeler. Officers searching the vehicle found 3.5 grammes of drugs in his handbag.
Initial investigations indicate the man brought drugs from the Colombo area to sell to young people in the plantation region, police said.
He is to be produced before the Hatton Magistrate’s Court. Further inquiries are being conducted by officers including the Officer-in-Charge of the Polpitiya Police Station, Police Inspector Sagara Mawalawilage.
A supply route, not a seizure
The quantity here is small — 3.5 grammes is a retail amount, not a consignment. What the case describes is a distribution route rather than a haul: a courier moving product from the capital into the up-country estates on public transport, allegedly for sale to youth on the plantations.
That framing matters more than the weight. Police in the hill country have repeatedly described the estate sector as a demand market served from Colombo, and roadblocks on the approaches to Hatton are the interception point. The Kalugala checkpoint sits on the route between the lowlands and the Dikoya–Hatton plantation belt.
Context
Drug enforcement in the central hills has produced large-scale operations during the Sri Pada pilgrimage season, when police recorded hundreds of arrests along the routes to the summit — the same corridor this arrest was made on.
Nationally, the Minister of Public Security said last week that about 70% of prison inmates face drug charges, a figure that sits awkwardly against the official inmate totals, and announced a programme aimed at drugs in schools.
Not reported
Hiru does not identify the drug involved, give the suspect’s age or name, or say whether he has any previous convictions. It does not say who was driving the hired three-wheeler or whether that person was also detained, nor what led officers to search the vehicle. No other verified newsroom had carried the arrest at the time of writing.
