A 45-year-old Sri Lankan man was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport on April 6 after Customs Narcotics Control Division officers found 11.340 kilograms of Kush cannabis concealed inside chocolate wrappings in his travel bag. The seizure has an estimated street value of Rs. 113.4 million.
The suspect, a wage worker from Slave Island in Colombo, arrived on a flight from New Delhi at 6:50 a.m. He and the seized narcotics were handed over to the Katunayake Airport Police Narcotics Division for further investigation.
Back-to-back BIA seizures
The arrest is the second high-value narcotics interdiction at the airport in recent days. Customs officers earlier intercepted a larger Rs. 255 million cannabis consignment at the same facility, suggesting smuggling networks are increasingly using BIA as a transit point.
Kush, a synthetic cannabis variant that has surged in West Africa and parts of South Asia, carries significantly higher street prices than conventional cannabis and has become a focus of customs enforcement at the airport. New Delhi remains a frequently flagged origin route on Sri Lanka Customs’ narcotics watchlist.
No further details on the suspect’s intended distribution channel have been released. The investigation is ongoing.
