A consignment of Kush cannabis worth Rs. 320 million was recovered from two suitcases abandoned at Bandaranaike International Airport early on Tuesday morning, with the passenger who checked them in apparently walking away rather than claiming the bags, NewsFirst reported.
The Police Narcotic Bureau made the seizure. Officers found the narcotics divided into 60 airtight packets, concealed inside the two cases. The total weight of the consignment was 32 kilograms and 91 grams.
Investigators established that the suitcases arrived aboard a SriLankan Airlines flight from Bangkok. Police believe the passenger to whom the luggage belonged abandoned it and left the terminal rather than risk arrest at the baggage hall.
Hiru News reported the same seizure, confirming the Rs. 320 million valuation and that the drugs were found in two bags abandoned at the airport.
The search for the passenger
No arrest has been reported. Police said they are working to identify the passenger using airport CCTV footage and the SriLankan Airlines passenger manifest for the inbound flight — a narrower task than an open manhunt, since the bags were checked in under a name and the manifest lists everyone who travelled.
Ada Derana, reporting the same seizure, placed the abandoned luggage near Baggage Belt No. 06 in the arrivals area and said the recovered stock was to be produced before the Negombo Magistrate’s Court. That account could not be read directly — Ada Derana’s site returned a CloudFront error — and it is noted here as background rather than cited as a source.
Scale and context
The valuation is consistent with the rate the Bureau has applied to earlier cases: at Rs. 320 million for 32.091 kilograms, the consignment is priced at almost exactly Rs. 10 million per kilogram, the same rate implied by several previous Kush seizures at the airport this year.
By weight it is roughly three times the largest Kush seizure LankaNewz has previously recorded at BIA — 11.34 kilograms, valued at Rs. 113.4 million, in April. Recent cases have been far smaller, including 5.3 kilograms carried by two women on September 9 and 668 grams on September 13.
Bangkok is the established route. Kush consignments intercepted at BIA this year have repeatedly arrived from the Thai capital, and in April police sought Interpol assistance over a group of monks suspected of making earlier narcotics runs from Bangkok.
Not reported
Neither outlet names the flight number or its arrival time, and neither says how the suitcases were identified as suspicious — whether by scanning, by a tip-off, or simply because they went unclaimed. Police have not said whether the passenger cleared immigration before leaving, which would determine whether they are still in the country.
It is also not stated whether anyone has been questioned, whether the bags were checked in by one traveller or two, or whether this consignment is linked to any earlier case.
