Police find over Rs. 100mn in the bank accounts of 11 suspects

Online sex trafficking ring using an under-aged girl:

Police investigators probing the online sex trafficking ring using an under-aged girl have found more than Rs. 100 million deposited in the bank accounts of 11 suspects who were among those arrested so far in this connection.

Sleuths from the specialized unit tasked to probe illegal assets have discovered Rs. 50 million in the bank account of the leader of the sex ring. In addition, he had US$ 12,199 in two fixed deposits.

Police said the bank accounts have now been frozen on a judicial directive.

The owner of the website ‘lankaad.com’ and its finance manager, who published online advertisements to sell the 15-year-old girl to clients, were arrested by the CID and are now in remand custody. They are residents of Panadura and Bandaragama respectively.

The finance manager of the website had deposited Rs. 7 million into his bank account, while more than Rs. 20 million was found in the bank account of the main suspect accused of selling the girl to various people. He is a resident of Laxapathiya, Moratuwa, police investigations revealed.

In addition, an examination of the bank accounts of a woman named ‘Matilda’, who was identified as the mistress of the suspect, revealed that more than Rs. 10 million had been deposited, while another woman also believed to have been involved in selling the under-age girl had several lakhs of rupees in her bank account.

All the suspects have now been remanded.

Police investigations also revealed that the owner of the web portal worked as a computer engineer drawing a monthly salary of Rs. 300,000 in a private company. However, after he started the ‘lankaad.com’ website, his income had shot up to Rs. 4.5 million per month.

It also come to light that the suspect’s website hosted around 21,000 advertisements per day and so far this year, he had earned around Rs. 30 million as advertising revenue.

Police also found that the suspect was planning to leave for Australia.