Customs seize Rs.1.7mn worth Meth pills at CME
A parcel carrying a batch of psychotropic drug Meth tablets worth over Rs.1.7 million which had been sent from Germany declared as two DVDS, were seized by the Customs officials at the Central Mail Exchange (CME) Tuesday morning.
The Customs officials stationed at the CME on suspicion decided to open and search a small parcel which had been declared as two Digital Video Discs, when a private wharf clerk came to clear it instead of the owner.
Customs Spokesman Director Sunil Jayaratne told the Daily Mirror the parcel which had arrived from Germany on air mail was consigned to a male in Dunagaha in Divulapitiya.
The parcel had contained 500 tablets of popularly known drug Crystal Meth or chemically known as Methamphetamine, which weighed around 250grams.
The wharf clerk who came to clear the parcel bore a National Identity Card and relevant other documents of the person who was said to be the consignee of the package.
The parcel had contained 500 tablets of popularly known drug Crystal Meth or chemically known as Methamphetamine, which weighed around 250grams
However, the preliminary Customs investigations disclosed that the NIC and other documents of the consignee had been given to the wharf clerk by a person who acted as a ‘middle-man’.
The inquiries had revealed that the middle-man had been recognized as a youth who had contested for the Gampaha District from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in the recently concluded local government elections from Nivasipura in Ja-ela.
The Customs also learnt that the authorized wharf clerk had been paid a sum of Rs.50,000 to get this special package cleared from the Foreign Mail Section of the CME at the D. R. Wijewardene Mawatha.
Customs Deputy Superintendent C. Gamachchi detected the case and the investigations were conducted by Customs Narcotic Control Unit Superintendent Channa Shanthapriya on the instructions of Customs Director Preethi Gallage and Deputy Director K H P Kumarasiri.
The suspect wharf clerk and the narcotics had been handed over to the Police Narcotic Bureau for further investigations.
The particular detection of Meth tablets at the CME had been considered as one since five years period. The Meth pills were detected just days after the detection of Hashish concealed in a parcel of Skateboards seized at the CME.