Six foreign nationals were arrested in Gandara on Wednesday during a raid carried out by the Matara Division Crimes Investigation Unit at a hotel in the Talalla area, police said.
The suspects — five men and one woman aged between 25 and 40 — were identified as nationals of Taiwan and China. They were taken into custody on suspicion of remaining in Sri Lanka without valid visas, engaging in financial fraud, conducting business activities on tourist visas, and possessing duty-free cigarettes brought into the country illegally, Newswire reported.
The group was produced before the Gandara Police Station, which is conducting further investigations.
The Matara raid widens an enforcement push that has dominated Sri Lankan policing this week. On Tuesday, 60 foreigners — including Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian nationals — were arrested in Kollupitiya for similar offences, and a separate operation on Wednesday detained 74 Vietnamese nationals at another Kollupitiya hotel for financial fraud. The Talalla detention is the first major foreign-cybercrime sweep this cycle to occur outside the Western Province, suggesting syndicate activity has spread south along the coast.
Police have linked the wider crackdown to a pattern of visa-violating fraud rings operating from rented residential and short-stay properties, with 628 foreigners arrested for illegal activity so far in 2026.
