Thirty-two Chinese nationals have been arrested after police searched a hotel in Nalluruwa, Panadura, over suspected illegal online operations and financial fraud.
The search was carried out on 6 and 7 November by the Panadura Division Crimes Investigation Bureau under a warrant issued by the Panadura Magistrate’s Court, the Daily Mirror reported.
The operation followed intelligence received by the Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of the Panadura Division about suspicious online financial activity said to be taking place at the premises.
Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, the Police Special Task Force, the Criminal Records Division, the Police K9 Division and the Department of Official Languages assisted in the raid — the last of these presumably for Chinese-language interpretation, though neither filing says so.
Police found 32 Chinese nationals at the hotel and seized 23 computers and related electronic equipment to establish whether any offence had been committed. The seized items were handed to Panadura South Police. The CID has taken over the inquiry.
Hiru News says police are investigating what form of financial fraud the group was engaged in and how they entered the country.
A note on what has and has not been established
The accounts differ in one respect worth stating plainly, and the position moved during the day.
The Daily Mirror said only that police found the 32 at the hotel during the search. Hiru described them as having been taken into police custody. NewsFirst, filing on Sunday evening, goes further than both and reports that the 32 Chinese nationals have been arrested following the raid — the first of the three filings to use that word.
Even so, no charge and no court appearance is reported by any of the three. NewsFirst says the CID is still investigating “to determine whether the suspects were operating an illegal online financial fraud operation” — so the question of whether an offence occurred remains open on all accounts. No one has been named.
Not an isolated case
Sri Lanka has seen a run of similar operations. This desk reported on 21 foreign nationals arrested in Maradana over online financial fraud less than a week ago. Police have previously said that foreign-run cyber-scam operations based in Sri Lanka primarily target victims in China, and a Chinese criminal investigation unit has worked alongside the local CID on earlier cases.
Panadura itself has featured before: a comparable raid in the same division netted a smaller group in 2024. The recurring shape — a rented hotel or house, a bank of computers, a group of foreign nationals on short-stay visas — is the one police have described in each of these investigations.
Update (8 November): police appeal to the public on foreign nationals at hotels
NewsFirst’s evening filing adds an element absent from the earlier two accounts. Police have urged the public to report suspicious activity involving foreign nationals staying at hotels, guesthouses or holiday resorts, either through the emergency numbers 118 or 119 or at the nearest police station.
That appeal extends the case beyond this one raid, and indicates police regard short-stay accommodation as the recurring base for these operations rather than an incidental detail of this one — consistent with the pattern described above.
NewsFirst otherwise matches the earlier filings on the substance: the raid followed information received by the Panadura Senior Superintendent of Police, was carried out under a warrant from the Panadura Magistrate’s Court, involved the CID and the STF among other units, and recovered 23 computers and other items.
Not reported
None of the three filings names the hotel, states the visa status under which the group entered Sri Lanka, or says who the suspected victims were or where they are located. None gives a value for the suspected fraud, says whether any Sri Lankan nationals are under investigation, or reports a response from the Chinese embassy in Colombo. The Department of Immigration and Emigration’s role, if any, is not mentioned.
No filing reports where the 32 are being held, whether they have legal representation or consular access, or when they are expected to be produced before a court.
