Four suspects have been arrested and a cache of firearms recovered in raids at two locations in Kolonnawa, Hiru News reported on Monday.
The operation was carried out by the Western Province North Crimes Investigation Division, which recovered:
- a 9mm pistol
- seven firearms capable of using T-56 ammunition
- more than 600 rounds of 9mm ammunition
Further investigations into the four people arrested are being conducted by the same division.
The recovered ammunition does not match the rifles
The inventory as reported contains a gap worth noting. The T-56 is chambered for 7.62×39mm ammunition, while the 600-plus rounds recovered are 9mm — the calibre of the single pistol, not of the seven rifles.
On the report as written, no ammunition for the seven rifles was found at either location. Whether that reflects what was actually seized, or an imprecision in how the haul was described, is not clear from the account.
The same unit ran a near-identical raid in June
Monday’s operation closely mirrors one the same division carried out three and a half months ago. On June 3 the Western Province (North) Crimes Division seized 19 revolvers and arrested four suspects in a raid at Dematagoda — the same unit, the same number of people taken into custody, and a neighbouring suburb on Colombo’s eastern edge.
Neither report links the two operations, and there is nothing to indicate they are connected. But together they show the division mounting repeated bulk-weapon recoveries in the same corridor of the capital within a single year.
Seven military-pattern rifles remains a substantial haul by the standards of recent reporting: the year’s other T-56 case involved a single rifle recovered from beneath a tree in the Somawathiya National Reserve.
What is not reported
The report does not give the ages, names or alleged affiliations of the four suspects, the date of the raids, whether the weapons are linked to any specific offence, or whether the suspects have been produced in court.
