A prison guard attached to the Sri Lanka Prisons Emergency Action and Tactical Force at Angunakolapelessa Prison has been arrested for possession of cannabis.
NewsFirst reported that the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the Southern Province said the arrest was made on Saturday night.
The suspect is a 45-year-old prison guard resident in Kapuhenthota, Kahawatta. He was due to be handed over to the Angunakolapelessa Police for onward action.
Why the unit matters
The Prisons Emergency Action and Tactical Force is the Department of Prisons’ specialist response unit — the body deployed to handle disturbances, searches and high-risk escorts inside prisons. An officer of that unit being arrested on a narcotics allegation concerns the part of the service specifically tasked with enforcing order and intercepting contraband.
Angunakolapelessa, in the Hambantota district, is one of the country’s newer high-security prisons and has featured in prison-administration reporting before, including the transfer of inmates from the closed Bogambara facility.
Not reported
NewsFirst’s filing is brief and leaves most of the case open. It does not state the quantity or value of the cannabis recovered, where on or off prison premises the arrest took place, or who made it — the report names the DIG’s office as the source but not the arresting unit. It does not say whether the officer was on duty at the time, whether the drugs were destined for the prison population, whether he has been suspended or interdicted, or when he is to be produced in court. It carries no comment from the Department of Prisons.
This desk checked the Daily Mirror’s latest-news listing and the Hiru News homepage for a second filing on this arrest and found none at the time of writing.
