By Madura Ranwala and Norman Palihawadana
The Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) yesterday afternoon raided a warehouse in Kelaniya, from where international drug trafficker Gampola Vidanalage Samantha Kumara aka Wele Suda is alleged to have carried out distribution operations. The police had recovered 26 gear boxes of tractors alleged to have been used to smuggle heroin into the country in large quantities, Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said last night.
The SSP told The Island that the storeroom located at No. 875, Biyagama Road, Sinharamulla, Kelaniya had been one of the distributing centres used by the drug lord and it had been rented by Britisher named Jerome Douglas for Rs. 185,000 per month and he had employed two Pakistanis called Ikram and Imran there.
Asked whether those foreigners had been arrested, the SSP said that they had fled the country and as they had allegedly aided and abetted Wele Suda in supplying the local drug barons with narcotics smuggled from Pakistan.
Police investigations had been launched to find out how the narcotic secreted in the gear boxes of tractors had got past the Customs without being detected.
Wele Suda is being grilled over the alleged drug trade by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on a three-month detention order following his extradition from Pakistan immediately after the Jan. 08 presidential election.
Wele Suda was arrested by the Pakistan police, when he attempted to send heroin to Sri Lanka inside the tyres of tractors.
Colombo District Parliamentarian Duminda Silva was questioned by the CID for more than 20 hours on three consecutive days last week over his alleged involvement in the acts of money laundering and heroin trade in the country.
Asked what action would be taken against MP Silva as the grilling was over, SSP Rohana asked us to wait and see what action the CID would take in future.