Psychoactive substances a challenge amid record cocaine, heroin hauls

The Police Narcotics Bureau with the support of Sri Lanka Customs seized more than 1,700kg of cocaine in 2016 and 2017. This includes 928kg of cocaine seized from an India- bound merchant vessel, MV Fabiola, when it docked at the Colombo Port on December 9, 2016, Minister of Youth Affairs and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayaka told a UN forum in Vienna, in Austria this week.

It was the largest haul of cocaine seized in South Asia with an estimated street value of 12 billion Sri Lankan rupees, or around US$77 million, he said.

He also said that in April 2016, the PNB and Sri Lanka Navy in a joint operation seized 101kg of heroin from a dhow off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.

He gave these details at a session of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime in Vienna on Tuesday.

He added that a further 314kg of heroin was seized by drug law enforcement agencies.

Cannabis Sativa L, locally called ‘ganja’, is the only illegal drug cultivated in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, over 4,987kg were detected by all law enforcement agencies.

The prevalence of new psychoactive substances is causing new challenges to all drug law enforcement agencies and in 2017, the PNB detected a consignment of 542.60kg of “khat’’, in Sri Lanka which originated from Ethiopia," Ratnayaka added.

”These impressive successes by enforcement agencies are just the tip of the iceberg. They have not deterred drug trafficking networks from using the Indian Ocean as a narcotics highway (or as CMF calls it the smack track)," the he said.

"Sri Lanka is being targeted by drug traffickers to develop onwards routes. These would be plentiful because of the voluminous container trade with destinations including the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia Pacific and North America."

Commenting on difficulties faced by Sri Lankan authorities in battling drugs and drug- related crimes, he said, "One major challenge is the lack of a ‘legal finish’ [such as prosecution] for the majority of drug seizures made within international waters in the Indian Ocean region. Some of the possible avenues towards improved outcomes are taking a more robust approach to asserting follow- on jurisdiction over un-flagged vessels; and better use of existing obligations, mechanisms and networks to achieve improved interdiction rates over flagged vessels."