Problem of drug lords escaping justice using willing fall guys

By Saman Indrajith

Irrigation Minister and State Minister of Internal Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management Chamal Rajapaksa told Parliament, on Thursday (8) that intelligence sleuths had been deployed to trace the drug lords who escaped the law by using willing fall guys who admitted to crimes for money.

The Minister said so in response to a question by Ratnapura District SJB MP Hesha Withanage, who pointed out that anti-narcotic operations would not yield the desired results as long as drug czars had their expendable hirelings to admit to their crimes and go to jail. “Those hirelings admit to the offences of the drug kingpins and go to jail. In return of those services, the narcotic dealers pay and take care of the family members of the hirelings. As long as this practice exists, the government will not be able to eradicate the drug menace.”

Minister Rajapaksa said that the government was aware of the issue raised by the MP. “We have handed over the matter to intelligence units and they will trace the masterminds. There will soon be more arrests. This time the arrests will not be limited to sprats, both sharks and sprats would be in jail.”

The Minister said that the eradication of drug trafficking was one of the main objectives of the present government and Sri Lanka Police would do its utmost to achieve that goal.

MP Withanage demanded to know the results of the raids.

Minister Rajapaksa revealed that in Ratnapura district drugs with a street value of Rs. 110 million had been seized by the police within the last two years following 6,962 raids and 6,957 arrests.

“Everything possible has been done to curtail the drug racket in the Ratnapura district. There have been several drug busts and arrests of suspects. We have taken legal action against the suspects. We have organised special awareness programmes to educate teachers and students on drug rackets targeting schools. We have also taken steps to establish information centres to thwart such attempts of dealing drugs to schoolchildren. There is a 24/7 special operation unit to receive all complaints and alerts on drug dealings of the area at the Senior DIG’s office.”

Asked if the government would arrest main narcotic-traffickers, Minister Rajapaksa noted that there were a number of such drug kingpins already in jail. “If you happen to know more of them, please submit all the information you have got to the police.”