The 12 officers of the Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB), who were arrested on drug trafficking charges, were ordered to be remanded till July 21 by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayarathne yesterday.
When the case was taken up before the court, Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris appearing on behalf of the Attorney General’s Department informed the Magistrate that another five PNB officers and three civilians have been held by the CID on detention orders in this connection.
DSG Dileepa Peiris also stated CID obtained a detention order for three months under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and he said the CID had arrested 21 suspects with regard to this matter.
“The CID found drugs and 31 Rs.5000 fake currency notes in possession of Sameera Pradeep Kumara (10th suspect) and one Rs.5000 fake currency note in the possession of Lakshan Wanniarachchi (11th suspect). The CID also discovered 12 grams and 22 mg of heroin, 49 grams and 95 mg of cannabis, 56 T-56 bullets and few revolver bullets during the investigations. 390 milligrams of cocaine was found from the personal locker in the PNB office.It has been revealed that these officers, while serving at the PNB had allegedly peddled Court productions. It has been revealed that the seventh suspect in this case had purchased two lands near the Kottawa Expressway at a cost of over Rs.10 million,” DSG Dileepa Peiris also stated.
The former government had given Presidential Awards for PNB officers who had committed to make the drug eradication programme a success and police officers who have shown exceptional skills in conducting drug eradication raids.The arrested suspects had also received Presidential awards. After completing a raid, each and every Narcotic officer will receive prize money from the government. The suspects had earned large amounts of money from drug trafficking and from the prize money given by the government. The suspects had done so at the time of weighing the illegal drugs after taking them into custody, DSG Dileepa Peiris told before court.
Investigations have revealed that the officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau, currently in custody, have been in contact with international drug traffickers in international seas. The officers lived luxury lives from the money which they earned through drug trafficking. Since international drug dealers are also involved in illegal firearms trafficking, there are suspicions that these suspects could have smuggled firearms into the hands of criminal gangs in the country.
DSG Dileepa Peiris said the keeper of the Production room at the PNB was arrested with regard to this incident and SSP Merril Ranjan Lamahewa had sealed the production room of the Police Narcotics Bureau. DSG Dileepa Peiris pleaded to issue an order directing the Government Analyst to submit a report pertaining to the drugs which have been stored in the PNB production room.
Attorney Ajith Pathirana appearing on behalf of the 7th, 9th and 10th suspects stated that they asked the CID to submit a report mentioning the involvement of each suspect related to this case. Counsel Ajith Prasanna further stated that the arrested suspects were ordinary police officers who had participated in the raids.
The Counsels also stated that the suspects had arrested a large number of suspects related to drugs.The Counsels also stated that those arrested suspects were in remand custody and pleaded to issue an order directing the prison authority to provide security for suspects.
The Magistrate ordered the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to detain and interrogate another officer of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB), arrested on July 7 for drug trafficking till July 14.
The Magistrate further ordered the CID to submit a report mentioning the involvement of those arrested suspects separately. The Magistrate also instructed the police to produce the court productions which they had seized during the investigations, to courts. The Magistrate also instructed Prison officials to take action to ensure the security of the suspects.
from daily news