Police have arrested 322 suspects on drug-related charges in and around the Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak) pilgrimage area since the start of this year’s pilgrimage season, the Police Media Division said on Wednesday.
The arrests were made during 336 raids conducted by officers from the Hatton, Polpitiya, Ginigathhena and Nallathanniya police stations under the Hatton Division — the four stations covering the main approaches to the mountain.
Suspects produced before courts have been fined more than Rs. 2 million in total over the season, the division said. Narcotics recovered during the raids include heroin, crystal methamphetamine (ice), cannabis, hashish, kush, mawa, intoxicating sweets and narcotic pills.
The Sri Pada pilgrimage season, which runs from the Unduvap full-moon Poya in December to the Vesak Poya in May, draws hundreds of thousands of devotees from across the country and abroad. The trail attracts a temporary economy of vendors and overnight stalls along the route, and police periodically warn that pilgrimage gatherings have been targeted by traffickers seeking to move product alongside the seasonal foot traffic.
The arrests fall under the government’s Rata Ekata anti-narcotics drive — the cross-divisional operation launched in October 2025 that has now produced multiple seasonal enforcement spikes. The Hatton Division crackdown adds another four-station cluster to a national tally that as of the most recent disclosures had crossed 156,000 arrests since the operation began.
