21 December 2022 06:09 pm
Necessary arrangements have been made to hand over the vehicles confiscated by Sri Lanka Customs (SLC) to be used for raids by the Sri Lanka Police Department, including drug prevention, State Finance Minister Ranjith Siambalapitiya said.
He said this while participating in an inspection visit on Monday (20) at the Hambantota port premises to monitor the relevant vehicles currently parked at the port.
He mentioned that some vehicles confiscated due to illegal importation have been at the port for about seven years.
"On the instructions of President Ranil Wickramasinghe, the ministry is looking forward to removing the existing legal obstacles regarding those vehicles and using them for the welfare of the people," the Minister said.
"We know that there are media reports that drug trafficking is spreading rapidly. The police department has about 12,000 vehicles for each of these raids. About half of them are older than 20 years.
"These vehicles are not enough for 600 police stations around the country and 111 police stations that are newly established," he said.
As a result, these vehicles are provided in response to request by the police, the minister added. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)