COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s anti-narcotics authorities today seized their biggest ever haul of cocaine being smuggled into the island, the finance ministry said.
The drugs were found inside a shipping container originating from Brazil, the ministry said, adding that the street value of the cocaine was about two billion rupees (USD 13.8 million).
The haul weighed more than 90 kilos (198 pounds).
“The stock of cocaine brought from Brazil was stealthily concealed in several travelling bags inside a container of sugar,” the ministry said in a statement.
President Maithripala Sirisena visited the container yard in Colombo where the drugs were seized following a tip-off and thanked the officials involved, the ministry added.
In April, Sri Lanka detained 14 foreigners after seizing 110 kilos of heroin worth USD 7.5 million from an Iranian fishing trawler in the country’s biggest drug bust for nearly three years.
Sri Lankan authorities have said that such large quantities of drugs suggest Colombo is being used as a transit centre.
