Excise busts booze racket to English fans at Premadasa stadium

A major racket of selling foreign liquor to the UK fans at the fifth One Day International (ODI) cricket encounter between Sri Lanka and England, despite strict laws at R. Premadasa Stadium, was busted by the Colombo Excise officials on Tuesday afternoon when the match was in progress.

A group of Colombo Excise Officers in plain clothes raided an air-conditioned private spectator box at the Grandstand Pavilion of the R. Premadasa Stadium in Keththarama, where 20 seats were accommodated only to the UK fans.

A ticket of this private spectator box had been sold at Rs.7, 500 by the Sri Lanka Cricket and the organizers of the racket had sold the tickets only to non-locals at Rs.20, 500 inclusive of a range of strong spirits, beer and wine with other refreshments.

A Senior officer at the Colombo Excise Station told the Daily Mirror the entire programme has been organized by a local tour agency based in Kollupitiya through a Facebook page called eTicketing.co, which only opens for bookings made from England.

The address of the FB page is at 54, Salisbury Road, Southall, UB2 5QJ, London, United Kingdom.

The site has advertised tickets as Corporate Hospitality Box Seating from 20, 500 LKR per person with the added benefits of the package as the Air-conditioned environment, beer cans, selection of drinks Black Label /Smirnoff Vodka /Wine, selection of juices – soft drinks – water with refreshments and dinner.

The Excise officials through a contact in London had booked four tickets at a cost of Rs.82, 000 saying for four English fans and had got it delivered through the office of the local tour agency in Kollupitiya.

When the officers arrived at the spectator box at the stadium around 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, when the match had just begun, there had been 16 spectators who were all from the UK.

The organizers had, however, showed themselves at 3.30 p.m. with the goods, when several annoyed foreign spectators, had started complaining what had happened to the liquor and other goods promised for their LKR 20, 500 tickets.

Then the organizers had asked them to wait some more time saying as the liquor was being delivered by their supplier.

The Excise Officers in civvies had witnessed a vehicle that had entered through the main entrance of the R. Premadasa Stadium was going back after the stock of liquor was unloaded downstairs near the elevator.

The stock of liquor, which was brought up to grandstand pavilion through the elevator had not been allowed to take out by the Excise Officers as it could rouse the nearing patience of the English fans.

Instead, they had taken the stock back to the ground floor and the two men of the organising committee who were present at the time were taken into custody along with the booze.

The seized stock contained six bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label Whiskey, six bottles Smirnoff Vodka, a range of wine bottles and close to about 50 cans of beer, which were worth up to Rs.300, 000.

With the arrest of the organisers by the Excise the English fans had enraged for not serving them with refreshments and alcoholic beverages they have already paid in advance for the plush spectator box.

The Excise Officers had however taken down the registration details of the vehicle that delivered the liquor to the stadium and had ordered an investigation as to how such a racket was underway despite strict laws pertaining to bringing in outside liquor to cricket matches.

Although, Excise Licence had been granted to sell only beer at five points within the stadium premises to its thousands of spectators, liquor brought from outside is completely prohibited as per the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) regulations.

The Excise Department suspects that the organisers of the liquor racket had a highly placed backing from within the SLC, as such activity was impossible with the heavy levels of security placed at the R. Premadasa Stadium when an international match is in progress.

A special probe has been launched by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the SLC and they too were seemed to be baffled as to how such racket was operating under their nose.

Colombo Excise Station OIC Chief Inspector Chanaka Nanayakkara is conducting investigations with his team Excise Inspectors Chinthaka Udapamunuwa, V. P. Gamini, Sanjaya Nishantha and Excise Guards Sampath Liyanage, Ravindra Perera, Nilantha Rajapaksa and Hemantha Dissanayake on the instructions of Assistant Excise Commissioner B. A. Dayaratne (Western Province) and Excise Superintendent Vijitha Gamanayake (Colombo City).

The two arrested suspects, who were aged 26 and 24 years of age, will be produced before Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Courts today.

The Excise Officers conducted the raid with a Search Warrant obtained from Court. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)