A man who arrived to throw a parcel of narcotics into the female inmates’ ward of Welikada Prison has been arrested, Hiru News reported.
The arrest followed an operation run on information received by intelligence officers of the Police Special Bureau attached to the Sahaspura Police Station. The suspect attempted to flee as he was detained.
What he was carrying
The search recovered:
- 250 grams of Ice (crystal methamphetamine)
- 150 grams of heroin
- 100 grams of tobacco
- a mobile phone, a SIM card and an electronic scale
The phone, SIM and scale are the detail that distinguishes this from a personal-use quantity. A set of scales delivered into a prison ward is equipment for subdividing and selling; a phone and SIM are the means of running that trade from inside.
Two attempts on consecutive days, one recipient
Under interrogation the man said he had tried to throw the parcel in to hand it to a woman known as ‘Thotalanga Poddi’, described by police as a powerful drug trafficker.
Police said a second suspect — a 27-year-old woman known as ‘Hansi’, from Wanathamulla T-Estate — was arrested after allegedly arriving the previous day to throw a parcel of narcotics to the same person.
That is the substance of the story, and Hiru’s headline understates it. These are not two people caught in one incident but two separate deliveries on consecutive days, aimed at the same inmate — a supply line into the women’s ward rather than a single smuggling attempt.
Both suspects are to be detained and questioned under the Dangerous Drugs Act.
Who the recipient is
Hiru does not name the woman behind the alias. Our archive does: Vindani Priyadarshani Suriyarachchi, known as “Thotalanga Poddi”, was arrested on 13 August by the Illegal Assets Investigation Division, with property valued at about Rs. 87.3 million allegedly bought with drug trafficking proceeds frozen in the same investigation.
On that identification, the alias in Friday’s police account belongs to a trafficker taken into custody five weeks ago — and the deliveries are being directed to her in prison.
The third breach of the same prison in five days
This is not an isolated failure at Welikada.
On 15 September a prison guard, S.A.A.E. Samaratunga, was arrested at the prison entrance with 8.510g of heroin and 54.110g of Ice concealed in his shoe. He was on prisoner-registration duty — a post with direct access to inmates entering custody.
Taken together, that is three attempts by three different routes inside five days: a serving officer carrying drugs through the gate, and two civilians throwing parcels over the wall on consecutive days. The two methods are not alternatives so much as evidence of demand that more than one channel is trying to meet.
No outlet has connected the incidents, and neither the Prisons Department nor the Ministry of Justice is reported as commenting on either.
Not reported
Hiru does not give the male suspect’s name, age or home area, the date or time of either arrest, or the street value of the narcotics seized. It does not say whether either parcel reached the ward before the arrests, or whether any inmate has been questioned.
It does not say whether the two suspects are connected to each other, how the Police Special Bureau came by its information, or whether the phone and SIM have been traced. Nor does it say what has been done about the physical vulnerability the two attempts exploited — the ability to throw a parcel into a ward from outside the wall.
There is no indication whether the woman named as the intended recipient faces any fresh charge arising from the attempts.
