Sri Lanka is increasingly being exploited as a key transshipment hub for international narcotics syndicates who are deploying vulnerable individuals to smuggle illicit drugs across borders.
Speaking at a press briefing at the 'Ratama Ekata' National Operation Office, senior Sri Lanka Customs officials revealed that criminal networks are taking advantage of the island nation's strategic maritime location to move contraband while using children, elderly citizens, HIV-positive patients, and pilgrims to evade security checks.
Under the new operational strategy, border authorities have instituted a mandatory hundred per cent inspection protocol for all cargo containers arriving from designated high-risk origin countries.
This policy follows significant interceptions by the Customs Narcotics Control Unit, including a major seizure of 999 kilograms of cocaine hidden within a container shipped from Brazil to India through Sri Lanka.
According to Deputy Director Nuwan Abeynayake, international trafficking operations frequently recruit Sri Lankan migrants who have faced deportation from countries like Thailand, offering to cover their travel expenses on the condition that they return home carrying baggage packed with hidden narcotics.
Customs media spokesperson Chandana Punchihewa said that organized crime groups are also targeting group tourists and religious pilgrims traveling to India, tricking them into bringing back commercial goods, such as sarees, in which drugs are secretly concealed.
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