A 23-year-old university student from the Dominican Republic was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on Saturday with a stock of hashish valued at Rs.377 million, Sri Lanka Customs said, in what the agency described as the largest hashish seizure at the country’s main airport.
The narcotics, weighing 37 kilograms and 639 grams, were discovered concealed in 146 packets inside two suitcases the passenger had brought with him, Customs officials said in a statement carried by NewsFirst. The suspect had obtained the consignment in Canada and arrived in Sri Lanka via Dubai.
Ada Derana, in a separate report, put the weight at 37 kilograms 675 grams and the estimated street value at “more than Rs.375 million.” The suspect’s age was reported as 24 in the Ada Derana account.
Sri Lanka Customs said this is the first time a hashish consignment of such value has been intercepted at the Katunayake airport. The narcotics and the suspect have been handed over to the BIA Police Narcotics Bureau for further investigation.
The arrest follows a series of high-value drug interceptions at the airport in recent weeks, including a Rs.75 million Kush cannabis seizure from a Sri Lankan passenger on Thursday and the arrest of 13 Chinese nationals over Rs.31.89 million in foreign cigarettes earlier this week. Customs Narcotics and the BIA Police Narcotics Bureau have intensified passenger screening at arrival under the government’s ongoing ‘A Nation United’ anti-narcotics drive, which Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said this week had recovered more than 10 tonnes of narcotics since October.
