Customs officers at Bandaranaike International Airport have arrested a 44-year-old businessman from Weligama, Matara, after finding 668 grams of “Kush” valued at about Rs. 6.68 million concealed in his clothing.
The suspect had arrived from Bangkok, Thailand, on SriLankan Airlines flight UL-405 at around 4.30 p.m. on Saturday 12 September, the Daily Mirror reported. The drugs were packed into three pellets wrapped tightly in sellotape.
He and the seized narcotics have been handed to the Katunayake Airport Police Narcotics Bureau for further investigation.
The two accounts differ on where he was stopped
Both outlets agree on the man’s age, home town, the quantity, the value, the country he flew from and the three-package concealment. They disagree on two details.
| Daily Mirror | NewsFirst | |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Red Channel | Green Channel |
| Concealed in | side pockets of his jacket | side pockets of his trousers |
The channel matters. The Green Channel is for passengers declaring nothing; the Red Channel is for those with goods to declare. NewsFirst reports that he was stopped during an inspection as he tried to leave through the Green Channel, which is the ordinary pattern for a concealment case. The Daily Mirror places him in the Red Channel. Neither outlet flags the discrepancy, and it is not resolvable from the reporting.
Kush at the airport
“Kush” is a synthetic cannabinoid mixture that has spread rapidly in Sri Lanka over the past two years and is now routinely intercepted at Katunayake. The valuation of roughly Rs. 10,000 per gram used here is the figure police and Customs have applied consistently in recent cases.
This is the second seizure reported at BIA in as many days. On Saturday two passengers were arrested with 533 cartons of cigarettes after being stopped in the Green Channel. The scale here is also an order of magnitude above the street-level trade: police seized under eight grams of Kush in four raids on a Mount Lavinia housing complex reported the same day.
Not reported
Neither outlet names the suspect, says whether he has been produced in court or what charges he faces, or reports whether he was travelling alone. Neither says whether the consignment is believed to be for personal sale or for onward distribution, whether he has any prior record, or whether Customs will prosecute alongside the Narcotics Bureau. Neither explains how he was selected for inspection.
