Police who searched the homes of three people arrested in a car at Pannala on Tuesday have recovered a further 62 grams of narcotics, Rs. 1,680,000 in cash and a quantity of drug packaging material.
The follow-up searches turned up 500 bottle caps described by police as used for packaging narcotics, a roll of transparent tubing and 2,235 plastic pipes, alongside the drugs and the cash, which officers suspect are proceeds of trafficking, Hiru News reported.
The still issued with the report shows two of those items in evidence bags: a heap of yellow screw-caps, and a second container of dark plastic tubes and clear vials.
What the totals now come to
The arrests were made on Tuesday morning, when officers from the Giriulla Police Station pursued a car out of Giriulla town on a tip-off that narcotics were being moved, and intercepted and searched it at Pannala. Police fired at one of the car’s tyres to stop it and broke the door locks when the occupants refused to open them.
At the scene officers seized 15 grams and 260 milligrammes of narcotics and Rs. 924,770. With Wednesday’s recoveries, the case now accounts for roughly 77 grams of drugs and Rs. 2.6 million in cash.
The three suspects are temporary residents of the Nelumdeniya area, Hiru reports. Giriulla Police are continuing their investigations.
The quantity dispute has not gone away
Hiru’s follow-up restates its own original figure of 15.26 grams for the vehicle seizure. That leaves unresolved the gap flagged when the arrests were first reported: NewsFirst put the vehicle seizure at “nearly five grams”, roughly a third of Hiru’s figure, and made no mention of the Rs. 924,770.
Neither outlet has attributed its quantity to a named officer or a court filing, and police have not published a figure of their own. Hiru’s first report identified the drug as heroin; Wednesday’s follow-up refers only to “narcotics” and does not name the substance recovered from the homes.
Still unanswered
The packaging material is the substantive new element — several thousand individual containers points to repackaging for retail sale rather than personal possession, though police have not characterised it that way on the record.
One question from Tuesday remains open. NewsFirst reported that those arrested were a 37-year-old man and two women aged 38 and 16. Wednesday’s report does not mention the minor, and neither outlet has said what role she is alleged to have played, whether she has been produced before a magistrate, or whether she is being dealt with under child protection provisions.
Hiru also does not say whether the home searches were conducted under warrant, or whether the suspects have yet appeared in court.
