Ex-freelance journalist nabbed with Rs.1.4mn worth hashish
An ex-freelance journalist of a popular local youth television channel was nabbed by the Customs officials at the Central Mail Exchange yesterday when he received a parcel through airmail containing Hashish worth of Rs.1.4 million from Spain.
The Customs officials stationed at the Central Mail Exchange (CME) at D R Wijewardene Mawatha decided to detain a suspicious parcel which came through airmail addressed to a local living in Nugegoda.
Customs Spokesman Deputy Director Sunil Jayaratne told the Daily Mirror the suspicious parcel was detained for search and the addressee was summoned to the CME to collect it.
The sleuths opened the parcel in the presence of the recipient to find two skateboards with bulks of Hashish strapped on to each board with tape.
The narcotics were weighing over 1.4 kilos, which a kilo of Hashish is regularly sold at Rs.100, 000 in the underground drug market.
The addressee who was from Shalawa Road in Embuldeniya, Mirihana in Nugegoda had admitted to the detectives that it was with his knowledge the parcel containing drugs had reached Sri Lanka.
Customs Narcotics Control Unit officials who took over the investigations learnt that the 30-year-old suspect had received Hashish smuggled through airmail on four previous occasions in the last couple of years.
The suspect who had worked as a freelance journalist at the private television channel had produced his National Identity Card with the profession stating as journalist.
A senior official at the Customs Narcotic Control Unit told the Daily Mirror that the suspect who had befriended a Spanish tourist in Batticaloa about two years ago had agreed to smuggle in Hashish into the country in a fool proof method of strapping them to neatly packed skateboards.
The suspect had reportedly delivered the previous consignments of contraband received by him to an individual for sums of money, whose identity is still not ascertained.
The officials suspect the local recipient who had reportedly shifted to a career in music afterwards had been caught up in a transnational drug ring.
The suspect was to be handed over to the Police Narcotic Bureau for further inquiries along with the seized contraband.
The investigations are carried out by Superintendents of Customs Channa Shanthapriya, Lal de Silva on the direction of Deputy Director of Customs Narcotic Control Unit K H P Kumarasiri and DDC Preethi Gallage.