A 39-year-old Chinese national has been arrested in Colombo over an alleged extortion racket targeting investors in the Colombo Port City, with four passports, five mobile phones and 42 SIM cards recovered from him.
Police say the suspect is believed to be linked to an international organised crime syndicate operating out of China, and that the racket primarily targeted business investors inside the Port City development zone, the Daily Mirror reported at 10.32 a.m. on Tuesday.
The arrest followed intelligence received by investigators, who then mounted an operation that led to him being taken into custody, NewsFirst reported at 9.48 a.m. He is accused of obtaining money through threats and coercion.
What was recovered
NewsFirst reports that investigators searching the suspect found:
- Four passports, believed to have been issued by China and several other countries
- Five mobile phones
- 42 SIM cards
A single suspect holding four passports from different countries and 42 SIM cards points to an operation built for concealment and for contacting a large number of people, though neither filing draws that conclusion or says how many alleged victims there are.
The two newsrooms name the arresting unit differently. NewsFirst calls it the Colombo Central Crimes Investigation Bureau; the Daily Mirror calls it the Central Crime Investigation Division, while using the acronym CCIB, which matches “Bureau”. The accounts otherwise describe the same arrest.
He was due to be produced before court on Tuesday.
Port City has a record of Chinese organised crime
This is not an isolated incident in that zone. In July, a Chinese national was abducted after a Port City clash and found murdered, and in August police appealed for help tracing three Chinese nationals over that killing. What is new here is the alleged offence: extortion of investors rather than violence between rival groups.
The arrest also comes a week after the government gazetted an organised crime bill giving effect to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime — legislation aimed at exactly this category of cross-border offending. Neither filing connects the two, and the suspect would be dealt with under existing law.
Not reported
Neither filing names the suspect, says how long he had been in Sri Lanka, or states his visa status. Neither reports how much money was allegedly extorted, how many investors were targeted, or whether any complaint triggered the intelligence. Neither says whether the four passports are suspected of being forged, whether other suspects are being sought, or whether the Port City management company was involved in the complaint.
