Mohammadi News Agency News – Features – Photo
MNA National Desk: Five people have been arrested in Bangladesh over their suspected involvement in the biggest drug haul in Sri Lanka’s history.
The suspects were detained in separate raids on Monday, said Rapid Action Battalion spokesperson Mohammad Mufti Mahmud Khan.
The arrestees are Fatima Imam Tania, 26, Afsana Mimi, 23, Salma Sultana, 26, Sheikh Mohammad Badhon aka Parvez, 28 and Ruhul Amin aka Simon, 29.
The elite police unit has recovered 1,970 yaba pills, foreign currency notes and passports from the five suspects. They have “confessed to being involved in an international drug racket” during preliminary questioning.
On Dec 31, Sri Lankan Police seized 272 kilograms of heroin and five kilograms of cocaine during a special operation at a housing complex in Templers Road at Colombo’s Mount Lavinia. The haul is worth Tk 1.52 billion.
Two Bangladeshis caught in the operation were Mohammed Jamaluddin of Bogura and Rafiul Islam of Joypurhat. The two had arrived in Sri Lanka on Dec 23, according to Sri Lankan police.
Earlier, on Dec 14, two suspects were arrested in Nugegoda, a suburb in Colombo, with one kilogram of heroin hidden in a cake box, Superintendent of Police Gunasekara had told the Daily Mirror.
“One of the suspects had a remote controller for a roller gate and other keys. We found that the keys belonged to a two-storey house on Kawdana Road, Dehiwala [Mount Lavinia].”
On Dec 15, a Bangladeshi woman called ‘Surjamoni’ was arrested with another cake box of heroin. A police search in the building she rented, led to the discovery of 31 kilograms of heroin.
The hauls caused a sensation and led to the New Year ’s Eve raid at Mount Lavinia, conducted jointly by Sri Lanka’s Police Narcotic Bureau and the Special Task Force.
During the raid, packets, containers and luggage items filled with heroin were found everywhere in the house, said SP Gunasekara.
“The safe-house had been used to weigh and repack expired drugs … we believe the drugs were transported by sea and air.”
The Sri Lankan government sought Bangladesh’s assistance in the investigation. Bangladesh High Commissioner M Riaz Hamidullah then assured Colombo of full cooperation.
On Jan 5, Bangladesh’s Department of Narcotics Control detained one ‘Choice Rahman’ from a house at Dhaka’s Uttara. Rahman was named in a case by the Criminal Investigation Department filed at Uttara West Police Station.
Later, the arrests of three women suspects, based on information provided by law enforcers in Colombo, were reported in media. They allegedly played roles in smuggling the drugs into Colombo.
