Sri Lanka has identified 23 high-profile individuals behind organised crime and international drug trafficking operations who are evading arrest while residing overseas, primarily in the Middle East, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said on Monday.
“Twenty-three leading drug traffickers involved in narcotics operations have now been identified. These individuals are not residing in our country; they are living overseas, particularly in Middle Eastern countries,” the Minister said, according to NewsFirst. “Their second and third-level operatives are the ones operating within Sri Lanka.”
Wijepala said law enforcement agencies had gathered comprehensive intelligence on the 23 individuals, including the structure of their operations and their links to underworld networks. “We have conducted in-depth analysis and are taking all necessary steps to bring them within the reach of the law,” he said. “A significant number have already been brought back to the country, and legal action is currently being taken against them.”
Special investigative teams would be deployed to the foreign countries concerned in the coming weeks and months to ensure remaining suspects are apprehended, the Minister added.
The disclosure follows President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s May 29 statement that 186,000 arrests had been made in the first four months of the Ratama Ekata anti-drug operation, and that political protection for the drug trade had “for the first time” been dismantled. The President acknowledged at the time that the haul of 1,947kg of heroin, 2,062kg of crystal methamphetamine and 289kg of cocaine likely represented only a fraction of the narcotics in circulation.
Wijepala’s confirmation of an overseas tier of leadership matches that assessment — and shifts the operational challenge from domestic policing to international extradition and bilateral coordination, particularly with Gulf states where several Sri Lankan crime figures are known to have relocated. Recent extraditions have included Alto Dharme from Dubai and earlier Interpol-linked transfers.
Source: NewsFirst.
