Video: Floating armoury: Police looking at licence factor

19 January 2015 11:59 am

Referring to the firearms found aboard a ship at the Galle harbor, Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana today said that the legality of the ‘floating armoury’ and its arms had not yet been verified and the primary objective of the investigation was to find out whether the arms have been duly licenced.

He said the ship belonged to a private security firm to whom a permit had been issued by the Ministry of Defence in order to take over a service conducted by the Navy up till September 18.

“The DIG of Galle discovered the weapons and the CID has joined the investigation to affirm whether these arms have been duly licenced and whether the necessary permits have been obtained.

“We are looking into how many firearms have licences and how many permits have been obtained,” he said

He stated that 3,154 automatic and semi automatic rifles and an ammunitions stock of 747,859 was seized aboard the ship. (Sanath Desmond and Jehan Gunasekara)