Sri Lanka Customs says it has begun special monitoring after intercepting hashish cannabis seeds sent into the country through courier parcels, in what officers believe is an attempt to start growing the plants locally rather than to import the finished drug.
Senior Director of Customs and Media Spokesman Chandana Punchihewa said the seeds could germinate in Sri Lanka’s climate, and that investigators suspect they were intended for cultivation rather than personal use, NewsFirst reported.
The Thailand route has been abandoned
The more significant change Punchihewa described is one of geography. For months, narcotics detections were dominated by passengers arriving from or transiting through Thailand — a pattern Customs flagged publicly in July and which produced arrests as recently as two Thai nationals held at Bandaranaike International Airport on 8 September.
This month, all four of the department’s narcotics detections came through entirely different channels. One consignment originated in Madagascar, two were linked to the United Kingdom and one to Italy. Roughly four kilograms of narcotics were seized across the four cases.
Punchihewa said the routes differ considerably from the patterns officers had previously encountered, and that traffickers appear to be deliberately altering transport pathways to avoid detection.
Body scanners planned
Customs currently relies mainly on scanners used to inspect baggage. Punchihewa said steps are under way to install advanced equipment capable of body examinations for passenger screening, which would let officers detect narcotics concealed on or inside a traveller rather than in luggage.
The department has separately warned travellers not to carry parcels or bags for other people, saying smugglers recruit unwitting couriers.
What has not been reported
NewsFirst did not give the quantity of seeds intercepted, the number of parcels involved, whether anyone has been arrested in connection with them, or where the seeds were addressed. No timetable or cost was given for the body-scanning equipment. No other newsroom had filed on the briefing at the time of writing.
