Police have arrested three men, including the alleged mastermind, over a plot to murder the informant whose intelligence produced one of Sri Lanka’s largest crystal methamphetamine seizures, Hiru News reported.
The arrests were made at Sellakataragama by the Walana Central Anti-Corruption Prevention Unit — the same unit whose director the syndicate had allegedly once planned to target.
A priced contract
Investigators say the organised crime figures “Angoda Priyantha” and “Ruben” issued a contract worth Rs. 1.4 million to kill the informant.
His information had led to a raid on 29 November 2025 that seized 325 kilograms of Ice, along with eight arrests and six vehicles.
The three in custody
- Madhuka Chamara, alias “Madhuwa”, named as the primary suspect. Police say he was found with two machetes, 8 grams of heroin, and documents for a fake number plate intended for an Isuzu Trooper styled to look like a police vehicle.
- Nalin, of Ingiriya, detained with a suicide note addressed to his son — which police read as a statement of readiness to carry out the killing whatever the cost.
- Susantha, the primary suspect’s brother-in-law.
Madhuka Chamara and Susantha are already facing a murder trial at the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court over an earlier killing in Wellampitiya.
The plan police describe
According to the investigation, the group intended to drive to the informant’s home in Kirinda in a blue Isuzu Trooper disguised as a police jeep, abduct him, kill him with machetes, dump the body and then burn the vehicle.
The jeep was recovered on 8 September from a garage at Hewagama, Kaduwela and handed to the Kirinda Police.
Hiru’s own two accounts do not line up
This is the second time Hiru News has reported on this vehicle, and the two accounts describe different things.
On 9 September the outlet reported that suspects in the fake police jeep had already run the informant down at about 6:00 a.m. on 5 September, severely injuring him, and that he was in hospital under police protection. Tuesday’s report describes an abduction-and-machete plan that was disrupted before it could be carried out, and does not mention the 5 September attack at all.
Both can be true — an earlier attempt followed by a second plan — but neither report acknowledges the other, and Hiru does not say whether the men now in custody are accused over the September attack, the plot, or both.
The valuation does not survive arithmetic
Tuesday’s report puts the seized consignment’s value at “over 500 million rupees”. Hiru’s own earlier report put it at over Rs. 500 crore — about Rs. 5 billion, a tenfold difference on an identical 325kg seizure.
The larger figure is the one consistent with the market. Rs. 5 billion across 325kg is about Rs. 15.4 million per kilogram, which sits inside the Rs. 17m–32m per kilogram range implied by the Rs. 8bn–15bn valuations placed on the 463kg Colombo Port haul in August. Rs. 500 million would value the same drugs at about Rs. 1.5 million per kilogram — an order of magnitude below any recent Sri Lankan seizure. The lower figure appears to be a dropped crore conversion.
The spelling of two names moves
Hiru’s 9 September report named the traffickers “Angoda Priyankara” and “Reuben”. Tuesday it uses “Angoda Priyantha” and “Ruben” — matching the spellings Ada Derana used for two suspects in the Colombo Port Ice case. That strengthens, without confirming, the possibility that the same network is under suspicion in both seizures. No outlet has linked the cases, and neither man is reported as arrested.
Not reported
Hiru does not give the informant’s condition, does not say whether Angoda Priyantha or Ruben has been located, and does not say where either is believed to be. It gives no ages for the three arrested, no date for the arrests, and no court date. It does not say what became of the eight people held in November, or whether the garage owner at Hewagama is under investigation. No other verified newsroom had filed on the arrests at the time of writing.
