Narcotics boom due to past political patronage - PM

Narcotic drugs have become a big problem because it is found everywhere in the country today. Narcotic drugs would not have reached the villages if law and order was properly administered in the country before 2015, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said. “Although orders came from top echelons to conduct raids on drug racketeers, most persons at the lower rungs were connected to the drug racket.

“Whenever a suspect in possession of drugs was arrested in a raid, politicians at that time spoke over the phone and ordered the release of the suspect,” the Prime Minister said.

“Drug racketeering and sexual abuse of women were considered as qualifications to become Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman then. But since 2015 we have issued strict orders to police to act firmly to combat drug trafficking and racketeering,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe made this observation addressing a meeting after opening a newly built auditorium at Ibbagamuwa on July 14.

The Prime Minister said in 2015 the government decided to break the drug supply chain because once its done, there won’t be any drugs available for distribution.

He said countries such as Singapore advised us to first pay attention to the supply chain and disrupt if they were to curtail distribution. Thereafter, we asked Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara and the IGP to get cracking in this endeavour.

According to reports received by the Prime Minister, the amount of heroin seized had been 46 kg in 2015, 207 kg in 2016, 350 kg in 2017 and 150 kg during the last 6 months of this year. The amount of ganja seized had been 6,570 kg in 2015, 4,178 kg in 1,016, 4,987 kg in 2017 and 2,900 kg during the past seven months. The amount of Cocaine seized had been 6 kg in 2015, 1,571 kg in 2016, 221 kg in 2017 and 14 kg in the last seven months. Now, the law enforcement authorities wee targeting the supply chains.

“Two things happen when there is a shortage in supplies. One is the increase in price due to short supply and the second is the decrease in supplies resulting in clashes among the distributions,” the Prime Minister said.

“Now clashes among distributors had escalated into shooting incidents causing loss of life among the distributions. When chases occur among drug distributors police find it easy to arrest them,” the Premier added. 

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