Sri Lanka Police have arrested a woman in Wellampitiya following the discovery of a large stockpile of counterfeit US dollar notes, NewsFirst reported on Monday.
According to police, the suspect was taken into custody during a targeted raid carried out by the Colombo Central Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB). Authorities revealed that fake dollar notes equivalent to approximately Rs. 190 million were found in her possession at the time of the arrest. The suspect is a resident of the Wellampitiya area on the eastern edge of the Colombo Municipal Council.
The Wellampitiya haul is the second large counterfeit US dollar seizure in the Western Province on the same day. Earlier on Monday, the CCIB arrested four people, including a woman, at a Colombo star-class hotel with US$600,000 in counterfeit notes — equivalent to roughly Rs. 180 million. Police have not yet linked the two operations publicly, but both fall under the same Colombo-based unit and both involve six-figure US dollar volumes.
Counterfeit USD investigations have surfaced regularly this quarter, with the CCIB earlier seizing US$200,000 from a Tajikistan-linked syndicate operating from a Galle hotel in early May. Sri Lanka’s prosecuting framework for counterfeit currency falls under the Penal Code, and suspects typically face remand pending forensic verification of the notes by the Government Analyst.
Further investigations are continuing. Police said additional details, including the production of the suspect before court and charges to be filed, would be released after initial questioning.
Source: NewsFirst — Woman Arrested with Fake Dollars Worth Rs. 190 Million.
