Police have seized a shipping container holding about 5.7 million illegally imported cigarettes with a market value of more than Rs 600 million from a private container yard at Sedawatta.
The raid was carried out on 10 November by officers of the Western Province North Crimes Division, the Daily Mirror reported at 5.24 p.m. on Wednesday.
The container had been imported from Dubai. The cigarettes are of the Manchester brand.
Two suspects, residents of Ja-Ela and Katugastota, were arrested and are to be produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court.
Who made the seizure
The filing is unusually specific about the officers involved. The raid was conducted by Investigation Team II, led by Police Sergeant 73086 Anuradha with Police Constables 11713 Anuradha, 26536 Nimal, 100486 Nuwaranga and 9055 Sanjeewa.
It was supervised by Police Inspector Pathum Anjana and overseen by Assistant Superintendent of Police Indika Dharmaratne, the division’s director.
A police seizure, not a Customs one
The agency matters here. Sri Lanka’s large cigarette seizures are usually made by Sri Lanka Customs or the Special Task Force at the point of import. This one was made by a provincial police crimes division at a private yard inland, after the container had already cleared into the country.
That places it alongside, rather than within, the run of recent interceptions this desk has reported: Rs 792 million in illicit cigarettes seized by Customs at Thotalanga on 5 November, Rs 677 million worth destroyed at Kerawalapitiya on 29 October, and an STF arrest over cigarette smuggling at Weyangoda on 1 November.
The scale of the trade is the backdrop. Sri Lanka has among the world’s most expensive cigarettes by purchasing power, and the Ceylon Tobacco Company has attributed falling tax revenue to the illicit market.
Not reported
The filing does not say how the container was declared on import, which is the central question in a case of this kind — whether it was mis-declared, under-declared or declared accurately and then diverted. It does not say when the container arrived in Sri Lanka, which vessel carried it, or how it cleared the port.
It does not name the container yard or its operator, say whether the yard is under investigation, or explain what the two arrested men are alleged to have done. No charge is stated. Nothing says how the Rs 600 million valuation was arrived at, whether it is a retail or duty-inclusive figure, or what duty would have been payable.
Nothing states whether Sri Lanka Customs or the Excise Department is involved in the investigation, or whether the seizure is linked to any earlier case.
A note on sourcing. The Daily Mirror’s filing carries no reporter byline, its JSON-LD author field reading “Administrator” — consistent with a police media release rather than desk reporting, which would also explain the detailed roll of officers’ names and numbers. Hiru’s filing reproduces the same roll of officers, which points to both outlets working from that release rather than to two independent accounts.
Update — 11 November, evening
Hiru News filed its own account at 7.57 p.m., confirming every substantive detail: the container was seized at a private container yard in Sedawatta by Western Province North Crimes Division officers, it was imported from Dubai, and two men resident in Ja-Ela and Katugastota were arrested. Hiru reports the pair have been produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court, where the Daily Mirror had said they were to be produced.
Hiru gives the value as Rs 60 crore, which is the same Rs 600 million figure. It names the same supervising officers — ASP Indika Dharmaratne as divisional director and Inspector Pathum Anjana directing Investigation Team II — and the same five officers who made the seizure.
Neither filing adds anything on the import declaration, the yard’s operator or the charges, so the questions below stand.
This replaces our earlier note that no independent account of the Sedawatta seizure had been found.
