STF recovers Rs 1.4 mn worth of smuggled cigarettes

By Prabhath Withana

Police commandos raided a shop at Hendala, Wattala and recovered a stock of foreign cigarettes that had been smuggled into the country.

The Special Task Force raiding party took into custody one suspect and contraband cigarettes worth over Rs 1.4 million, police said. The stock contained 20,000 sticks of cigarettes which were later handed over to the Wattala police for legal action, police said.

The raid was conducted on information received from the Navy intelligence operatives, police said.

The raid had been carried out under the supervision of SP of Special Weapons and Tactics Division of STF Keshara Ratnaweera on instruction of STF Commandant Senior DIG Waruna Jayasundera.