Sri Lanka Police have temporarily frozen assets worth more than Rs. 30 million allegedly purchased with proceeds from drug trafficking by a Colombo 14 woman and her husband, NewsFirst and Newswire reported on Friday.
The frozen assets comprise two land plots in Thotalanga — measuring 1.30 perches and 0.75 perches — and a three-storey house at the site, identified by Newswire as a “luxury” residence. The Police Illegal Assets Investigation Division (IAID) said the properties were acquired through the woman’s drug-trafficking activities together with her husband.
The High Court issued the temporary confiscation order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, on a complaint forwarded by the Inspector General of Police to the IAID, Newswire reported. The order takes effect from Friday and runs for seven days, with the IAID continuing further inquiries during that window.
The seizure adds to a string of asset actions flowing from the government’s Yukthiya / Rata Ekata anti-narcotics operation, under which President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said in May that 186,000 arrests had been made and political protection had been broken “for the first time”. The IAID, which sits under the Inspector General of Police, has been the main vehicle for converting trafficking convictions into asset-recovery action under both the Money Laundering Act and the Proceeds of Crime framework.
