A 31-year-old man has been arrested in Balapitiya with a foreign-manufactured pistol, one magazine, 16 live rounds of ammunition and 11.5 grams of crystal methamphetamine, with police identifying both him and a second suspect as associates of underworld figure “Loku Pattie.”
The arrest was made during a raid by officers attached to the Ahungalla Police Station in the Ambalangoda area, Ada Derana reported. The detained suspect is a resident of Balapitiya.
Investigations have revealed that the firearm had been handed to him a few days earlier by a 22-year-old man, also a Balapitiya resident, who had been arrested separately on May 2 in the Wadduwa area of Ambalangoda. Both suspects are associates of the underworld criminal known as “Loku Pattie,” police said, and the firearm is believed to have been handed over with the intention of carrying out a crime.
The seizure adds another firearm-and-narcotics raid to the Western Province sweeps that have run through April and into May, with multiple commercial premises and gang associates targeted under the post-Avurudu policing calendar that produced 548 arrests on Saturday alone.
Ahungalla Police are conducting further investigations into the underworld network the two suspects allegedly served, and have not disclosed the criminal target the firearm was being prepared to be used against.
Source: Ada Derana.
