Excise busted liquor racket by embassy driver

A major racket involving the selling of selling foreign liquor at Rosmead Place by the embassy of an Asian country was busted when the Excise Department seized 100 bottles of foreign liquor worth over Rs.400, 000 yesterday.

The Excise Bureau of Special Operations had been informed that a driver attached to the particular diplomatic mission had been engaged in selling foreign liquor taking advantage of the privileges enjoyed by the embassy.

Excise Superintendent Excise Rohan Wijeratne of the BSO said that they sent a decoy to order and purchase a stock of liquor at an arranged price and he had been asked by the staff driver to come and collect it from the embassy premises.

The Excise sleuths however had arranged to make the deal outside the embassy premises and the driver had brought the liquor out of the embassy premises in a van.

The driver was taken into custody as he was transacting the deal with the decoy. The Excise officers had found 100 one litre bottles of Sir Edward whisky worth Rs.4,000 each.

Further interrogation revealed that the driver had been engaged in this racket for a long time buying large quantities of liquor at the duty free rates granted to diplomatic missions using fake invoices

He had then sold the liquor at high prices from the embassy premises taking advantage of the fact that the Excise officers could not make arrests within the embassy premises.

OIC T. B. Sarap of the Excise BSO, Excise Inspector Buddika, Excise Guards Anura,, Dhanajaya, Premaratne, Aravinda, Rodrigo and Jayantha made the arrest on the instructions of Excise Commissioner General L K G Gunawardena, Deputy Excise Commissioner Pushpakumara Silva and Assistant Excise Commissioner Nimal Silva.

The driver was produced before Maligakanda Magistrate yesterday and fined Rs.50, 000 and the vehicle used to transport the liquor was taken into custody.

The Excise Department is to inform the embassy officials about the incident. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)