20 April 2024 03:01 pm
Colombo, April 20 (Daily Mirror) - Two female passengers of the Republic of Guinea who tried to enter Sri Lanka by carrying Rs. 20 million worth of swallowed cocaine in their abdomens were intercepted by the Customs this morning.
Officials of the Customs Narcotic Control Unit stationed at the Arrival Terminal of the Bandaranaike International Airport questioned the foreigners on suspicion to realize that they had swallowed capsules containing cocaine.
Customs Spokesman, Senior Director Seevali Arukgoda told the Daily Mirror that the authorities have managed to retrieve 29 and 11 capsules containing 500 grams of cocaine altogether from the two women.
The foreigners aged 42 and 40 years have reportedly left Sierra Leone in Africa and had arrived in Colombo via Istanbul, Turkey on Turkish Airlines flight TK 730.
A gram of cocaine presently has a street value of Rs.40,000 in Sri Lanka and the seized 500 grams are estimated to value over Rs. 20 million.
The Customs sleuths suspect the female passengers to have more drug-containing capsules in their bodies in addition to the lot already retrieved by this afternoon.
Deputy Director Customs Narcotic Control Unit, Nuwan Abeynayake and his team are conducting further investigations.
The arrested suspects will be handed over to the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) officials at the BIA for further inquiries.
This is the third reported cocaine detection by the Sri Lanka Customs at the BIA for this year, after a female Madagascar national and a Brazilian national were nabbed last week and end of March respectively.