Mid sea operation launched to seize narcotics vessel

An offshore operation has been in progress for the past 48 hours, jointly conducted by members of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, the Sri Lanka Navy and the Police Narcotics Bureau, to seize a gas carrier that had arrived off the shores of Kerawalapitiya with a suspected consignment of narcotics.

Daily Mirror reliably learns that a vessel carrying liquid petroleum gas (LPG) for a leading private LPG distributor in the country had arrived in the sea off Kerawalapitiya on Tuesday.

The vessel which was believed to have departed from a port in a leading Middle Eastern oil producing country had arrived in Sri Lankan waters and is currently stationed at the LPG unloading location in the sea off Kerawalapitiya, technically known as the Composite Buoy Mooring (CBM).

The Police Narcotics Bureau, having received information that the ship was carrying a large stock of heroin, had launched the operation with the assistance of the SL Navy and Sri Lanka Ports Authority.

The PNB had sought the Navy's assistance to reach the point, and the SLPA officials had accompanied them due to the legal implications of boarding and searching a foreign vessel at sea.

The local agencies had reportedly surrounded the vessel but not succeeded in boarding it even upto last morning due to the prevailing rough sea.

When contacted last night, police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said that an operation was underway to thwart a possible attempt to smuggle narcotics into the country.

PNB sources confirmed that a special team had been dispatched to the scene to investigate the matter.

A special underwater pipeline buried in the seabed connected to the CBM conveys LPG from the vessel to the terminals of the LPG distributor in Kerawalapitiya. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)