Twenty-one wanted Sri Lankan criminal suspects deported from the United Arab Emirates were arrested on arrival on Friday, with the group’s flight diverted to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport after heavy rainfall closed Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for inbound traffic.
Among those returned were alleged underworld figures identified by police as “Mahawatta Chamara” and “Kudu Duminda,” Ada Derana reported, citing Sri Lanka Police. The Criminal Investigation Department took the entire group into custody within airport premises immediately after the aircraft landed, Newswire said.
According to police, the suspects had been living abroad for an extended period while continuing to run organised crime syndicates and drug-trafficking networks inside Sri Lanka.
The flight had originally been bound for BIA in Katunayake but was diverted to Mattala in the south after adverse weather from the advancing south-west monsoon forced multiple diversions on Friday morning. Ada Derana said the deportees arrived early in the morning at Mattala, where the CID was waiting to make the arrests.
The handover continues a steady flow of Sri Lankan suspects extradited or deported from Gulf jurisdictions. Earlier deportations and extraditions through Mattala and BIA have included high-profile figures pursued under the Ratama Ekata anti-narcotics operation, which authorities have framed as targeting both street-level dealers and the overseas command-and-control of trafficking networks.
Police said further investigations into the suspects’ alleged offences are continuing.
