Sri Lanka Police seized 19 revolvers and arrested four suspects in a raid at Dematagoda on Wednesday, the largest single haul of handguns in a residential Colombo neighbourhood this year.

The operation was carried out by officers attached to the Western Province (North) Crimes Division, the police said. The four suspects are in custody and the cache of revolvers has been taken into police possession, NewsFirst reported. Investigations are continuing.

Police did not say whether the firearms had been recovered from a single hideout or from premises linked to specific underworld networks, nor whether the weapons were unlicensed imports or stolen from licensed holders. The seizure adds to a recent wave of high-volume firearm recoveries: the Colombo Crimes Division seized 28 revolvers and a T-56 assault rifle linked to “Wanathe” and “Sahaspura Duminda” on May 26, and a CID search at Welisara Prison yielded pen-shaped firearms tied to organised crime networks in May.

The raid follows the Police Headquarters announcement on June 1 of a six-month nationwide inspection of every licensed firearm in the country, an enforcement drive prompted by repeated underworld shootings using both licensed and illegally acquired handguns.

Update (June 5): Newswire reported additional detail on the same operation, confirming the cache also included 19 rounds of T-56 ammunition, 15.2 grams of crystal methamphetamine and 100,400 pregabalin tablets, and that the breakthrough followed nearly 14 days of intelligence gathering, surveillance and investigative work by the Western Province North Crimes Division.

The operation traces back to a series of narcotics investigations launched in May. A first suspect was arrested in Ragama on May 12 with crystal meth and heroin, followed by a second arrest in Peliyagoda on May 18 with more than 1.5 kg of crystal methamphetamine. On May 22, officers recovered nearly 46 kg of crystal methamphetamine and more than seven kg of Kerala cannabis from a property on Sri Dharmarama Mawatha, Dematagoda, with no suspects present at the scene. Investigators subsequently arrested a key suspect in Neluwa while he was staying in a rented house with a woman, traced the narcotics origin to Matara, and identified a further transporter currently in remand custody after a separate Police Narcotics Bureau arrest in Matara. Information from the Neluwa interrogation led police to the Dematagoda property where the 19 firearms cache was found, Newswire reported. Further investigations are underway to identify additional suspects linked to the trafficking, storage and transportation of drugs and firearms.

Sources: NewsFirst (Zulfick Farzan byline); Newswire.

Update — June 17: Main suspect and female suspect arrested in Kataragama

The main suspect and a female suspect linked to the Dematagoda firearms cache were arrested by Western Province North Crime Division officers at a lodging facility in Kataragama, NewsFirst reported on June 17. Both are residents of Wellampitiya — the male suspect is 28 years old — and a three-wheeler used in the criminal activities has also been taken into police custody. The original Dematagoda raid had yielded the 19 locally manufactured firearms, 24 T-56 rounds, more than 100,000 illicit pills and over 15 grams of heroin; the four originally arrested suspects remain in remand custody.

Source: More Arrests In Illegal Weapons & Ammo Cache — NewsFirst, June 17.