Finance Ministry special narcotics unit nabs largest cocaine haul ever

The largest contraband of cocaine that has been ever seized in history was taken into custody by the Police Narcotic Bureau yesterday. The raid was carried out on a tip-off received by the Finance Ministry’s Special Unit to raid narcotics.

The stock of cocaine brought from Brazil was concealed in several travelling bags inside a container of sugar.

Soon after the contraband was seized, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake requested President Maithripala Sirisena to visit the scene.  Later President Sirisena inspected the seized stock of cocaine at the Orugodawatta Container Clearing Yard this noon.

The rough weight of the smuggled narcotics is 91.3 kilograms.  The rough value of the contraband is about 2 billion rupees, according to head of the Finance Ministry’s Special Narcotic Raid Unit, Wing Commander Ravi Jayasinghe.

Since the previous afternoon Officers of the Special Narcotic Raid Unit of the Finance Ministry in collaboration with STF personnel had carried out a search operation to track down the suspicious container.  Later the search officers identified the particular container in which the contraband of cocaine was concealed at the Orugodawatta Container Yard.

Later, during further search, the stock of cocaine was found where it had been cunningly concealed among sacks of sugar inside the container.

The Commandant of the STF and DIG Ranjith Perera, the head of the Finance Ministry’s Special Unit to Raid Narcotics, Wing Commander Ravi Jayasinghe, Customs Deputy Director Lalitha Weerasinghe and several other officials were involved in the successful raid.