COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities have seized almost 60kg of potent artificial hashish that foreigners tried to smuggle on this month in three separate instances, a customs official mentioned on Saturday (Might 24).
The South Asian island has lengthy been thought of a transit level for worldwide drug smugglers, and all three suspects – from Britain, India and Thailand – might face life imprisonment if convicted.
The 21-year-old British girl was arrested on Might 12, with customs officers saying she was stopped with 46kg of kush – an artificial drug containing highly effective opioids – packed in two suitcases.
“This might be the most important drug bust on the Colombo airport in latest instances,” mentioned Customs Further Director Normal Seevali Arukgoda.
British media experiences have recognized the girl as Charlotte Might Lee, a former cabin crew member from London, who had flown to Sri Lanka from Thailand.
She is being held in detention at a jail close to Colombo airport.
The BBC reported that she denied information of medicine in her baggage, and claimed they had been planted at her resort in Bangkok.
On Might 16, a 33-year-old Indian man was arrested on the northern seaport of Kankesanthurai.
Arukgoda mentioned that he had been carrying 4kg of kush.
He too has been handed over to the anti-narcotics police for additional investigations.
On Might 18, a 21-year-old Thai man was stopped at Colombo airport, who’s accused of trying to smuggle in almost 8kg of kush.
Sri Lankan authorities have beforehand seized massive portions of heroin off its shores, saying it advised the island is getting used as a transit hub for narcotics being reshipped onward.
In October, a Sri Lankan court docket sentenced 10 Iranian males to life imprisonment after they pleaded responsible to smuggling greater than 111kg of heroin.
The boys had been amongst 17 arrested in Sri Lankan waters in April 2016 whereas transporting narcotics aboard an Iranian trawler.
In 2023, 9 Iranians acquired life sentences in a separate drug smuggling case.
