Police arrested four men with 26.770 kg of cannabis in a raid at Pahanakaduwa in the Udawalawa Police Division on Thursday, the latest enforcement action in Sri Lanka’s running narcotics crackdown.
The operation was carried out by officers of the Embilipitiya Division Crime Investigation Unit on a tip-off, police said in a release relayed by Newswire on Friday. The suspects are residents of Pallebedda and Thanamalwila, aged 26, 31, 37 and 46. They are also believed to be linked to a series of cattle-theft incidents in the surrounding area.
The four were taken to the Udawalawa Police Station for further processing, and police said investigations are continuing. No information has been released on the source of the stockpile or onward distribution.
The raid is part of a sustained enforcement push around the Udawalawa wildlife reserve area, which has emerged as a recurring node in southern cannabis operations. Earlier this month, the Department of Wildlife Conservation destroyed roughly 155,000 cannabis plants found cultivated inside Udawalawe National Park, while a larger plot was cleared from inside the park itself in mid-May.
The seizure also feeds into the government’s flagship anti-narcotics operation Rata Ekata, which by April had logged more than 156,000 arrests and 1,917 kg of heroin recovered since its launch in late 2025.
Source: Newswire.
