STF nabs Peliyagoda constable for selling heroin

In a shocking detection, the Police Special Task Force yesterday arrested a Police Constable attached to the Peliyagoda Crime Division for selling heroin, with 120 sachets.

Amidst the Rs.30 million narcotics detection in Wattala on Sunday, a special STF team in a decoy apprehended the Constable on the road outside the Peliyagoda Police Headquarters yesterday morning while he had come to sell the sachets, STF sources said.

The STF on a tip off took a middle aged woman and her young son into custody from Kandana, Ganemulla area for selling heroin a couple of days ago.

Upon questioning the two suspects, the STF made a startling discovery as the duo claimed that they were supplied with the narcotics by a Constable attached to Peliyagoda Police.

With this information the STF set up a decoy to purchase more heroin from the policeman who responded to several phone calls and agreed to meet outside the station to deliver the drugs.

Upon meeting him, the Constable received money for the 120 sachets of heroin he was about to deliver to an STF sleuth in civvies and while the OIC Wattala Police who joined the raid was in close range.

According to sources the Constable from Kurunegala had been serving the Peliyagoda Crime Division for over two years, which directly operates under the Divisional Senior Superintendent of Police.

He had delivered 152 sachets of heroin to the mother and son on a previous occasion and was believed to have engaged in the illicit trade for sometime under the blessing of his uniform.

It was suspected that the PC had sold heroin which were being seized by his police unit during various raids. Investigations are being carried out to ascertain whether any senior officials were backing him.

He had sold a sachet for Rs.500 to his buyers and the mother and son had sold it for Rs.1000.

The constable was handed over to the Wattala Police to be produced in courts. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)