Rise of underworld

Wednesday 13th September, 2023

There has been a surge in serious and organised crimes over the past several months, if media reports are any indication. Hardly a day passes without several incidents of violent crimes being reported from different parts of the country, which is awash with illegal firearms and narcotics. The Western and Southern Provinces are the worst affected areas, according to the police.

Criminals, including military deserters, strike at will, and the police have their work cut out to bring them to justice. The country has come under a pall of uncertainty. The only thing that the long arm of the law does efficiently is to disperse anti-government protesters. They carry out this task with might and main to the satisfaction of their political masters. The sheer number of heavily-armed protest response teams deployed at the drop of a hat makes one wonder if the police are left with enough men to carry out other tasks such as combating crime.

The CID reportedly foiled an attempt by a dangerous drug dealer to escape from its headquarters over the weekend. Chinthaka Wickramaratne alias Harakkata, who was arrested overseas and brought here a few months ago, would have been able to make good his escape, with inside help, but for prompt action taken by the police to restrain him. Media reports say he had his handcuffs unfastened by a dirty cop on the sly and tried to grab the firearm of an STF officer on duty. His accomplice in uniform is reported to have fled, and the police have launched a search operation and sought public assistance to catch him. He cannot be the only cop in the pay of the drug dealers.

What’s the world coming to when a drug dealer infiltrates the police and makes a daring attempt to escape from the CID headquarters? The vulnerability of less guarded police stations and the personnel serving there is not difficult to understand.

It has now become evident from Harakkata’s abortive escape bid that the hush-hush compact between wealthy underworld figures and some corrupt cops is far more entrenched than previously believed. Besides, 18 Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) personnel were arrested, in 2020, for selling drugs seized by the police. They had carried out the racket for a long time and enriched themselves. Some other police personnel, too, have been found to be working for drug cartels. Their underworld links have stood in the way of the country’s fight against the drug menace. This may explain why it has been well-nigh impossible to neutralise the netherworld of crime and drugs.

The underworld is apparently running a parallel government. Crime syndicates, especially drug cartels, have infiltrated the inner circles of powerful politicians. In August 2014, a haul of heroin weighing about 131 kilos was found in a freight container which a drug dealer had got cleared from the Colombo Port with the help of a coordinating secretary to then Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne. This shows the extent of political infiltration, which has also compromised some key state institutions. Sadly, even the Government Analyst’s Department has failed to remain above suspicion. No wonder Sri Lanka’s criminal conviction rate remains extremely low; it has reportedly ranged from 4% to 6% during the past several years. Many drug dealers walk free, as the state prosecutor fails to prove charges against them for various reasons, much to the disappointment of the police personnel who arrest them after months of meticulous planning. One wonders if the entire state machinery is geared to serve the interests of lawbreakers.

Curiously, the government, which quells public protests ruthlessly, has baulked at approaching the task of combating crime with boundless zest. The country is struggling to come out of the worst-ever economic crisis, and the government would have the public believe that it is doing everything in its power to put the economy back on an even keel. But economic recovery cannot happen in a crime-infested environment devoid of socio-political stability.