Three Thai nationals were arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport early on Thursday carrying just over five kilogrammes of hashish concealed inside cosmetic cream containers, the Daily Mirror reported at 11.52 a.m.

The arrests were made by officers of the Katunayake Airport Police Narcotics Bureau, who stopped the three as they were leaving the terminal after arriving on a flight from Bangkok. A search of their luggage recovered 5kg 96g of hashish, packed inside cream containers distributed across three travel bags.

The Daily Mirror puts the street value at Rs. 51 million and gives the suspects’ ages as 22, 22 and 33, describing all three as drivers by occupation. They are to be produced before the Negombo Magistrate’s Court.

NewsFirst reported the same arrest later in the afternoon, agreeing on the agency, the Bangkok flight and the concealment method but giving the quantity only as “nearly five kilograms.” On the Daily Mirror’s figure the consignment is slightly over five kilogrammes, not slightly under.

The same payload, twice in six weeks

The figures place this case almost exactly alongside one from last month.

On 7 September, Customs Narcotics Control Unit officers seized 5.137kg of Kush and hashish worth an estimated Rs. 51.37 million from two Thai nationals arriving on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok, with the drugs concealed in plastic bottles inside their suitcases — a case this desk covered when reporting a third interception later that month.

Thursday’s haul is 5.096kg at Rs. 51 million. The two consignments differ by 41 grams and by about Rs. 370,000 in declared value, five and a half weeks apart.

They are separate cases — different enforcement agency, different number of couriers, different concealment, different drug mix. But a near-identical payload size on the same inbound Bangkok route is a pattern worth noting, and no filing draws the comparison.

The valuation is also internally consistent: Rs. 51 million for 5,096 grams works out to just under Rs. 10,020 per gram, the same working rate implied by the September figures. When this desk estimated an unvalued September seizure using that rate, it was arithmetic rather than an official number; Thursday’s official valuation independently supports it.

A recurring route

Katunayake has produced a steady run of Bangkok-route interceptions through the autumn. On 20 September, the Police Narcotics Bureau arrested three Thai women arriving from Bangkok with 7kg 686g of Kush and hashish. On 15 September, 32kg of Kush was recovered from two suitcases abandoned at the airport.

Thursday’s case is at least the fourth significant Thai-courier interception at the airport reported since the start of September. The group size — three — matches the September case exactly, as does the originating city and the arresting unit.

Not reported

Neither filing names the suspects, gives the flight number or carrier, or says whether the three were travelling together on one booking. Neither reports how the Narcotics Bureau was alerted, whether the three were profiled on arrival or stopped at random, or whether investigators believe the case is connected to any earlier seizure on the same route.

Nothing is reported about an intended recipient in Sri Lanka, and no authority has said whether the consignment was destined for the local market or onward transit. NewsFirst gives no street value and the Daily Mirror gives no breakdown of how the Rs. 51 million was arrived at.

An earlier version of this story reaching this desk attributed the arrest to Sri Lanka Customs. Both filings as published credit the Police Narcotics Bureau, and that is what is reported here.

Sources: Daily Mirror, NewsFirst.