Sri Lanka's biggest ever drug bust at sea

Two foreign trawlers packed with more than US$33 million worth of heroin and crystal methamphetamine were seized in Sri Lanka’s biggest-ever drug bust at sea, a Sri Lankan Navy spokesman said.

Troops found 400 kilograms of heroin and 100 kilograms of the drug “ice” on board the two vessels, spokesman Isuru Sooriyabandara said.

The street value of the seized narcotics is estimated by officials to be more than 6-billion rupees (US$33.5 million).

The vessels, as well as a Sri Lankan fishing boat, were escorted to a harbor near the capital, Colombo.

Sixteen foreign crew and five Sri Lankan crewmen were detained for questioning, Sooriyabandara said. Authorities did not disclose the foreigners’ nationalities.

“The two foreign vessels were trying to offload drugs onto a Sri Lankan fishing boat,” Sooriyabandara said.

The foreign vessels, which carried no registration, were intercepted in international waters 1,100 kilometers from Sri Lanka’s coast.

Sooriyabandara said investigators were checking GPS data on board the vessels to establish the route and the point of origin.

Authorities said initial investigations suggest the Iran-Pakistan coast was the point of origin.

In 2016, the Sri Lankan Navy arrested 10 Iranians, two Pakistanis and one each from India and Singapore for trying to smuggle 110 kilograms of heroin into the country on a trawler.

The country’s previous record drug bust was in 2016 when police seized 800 kilograms of cocaine from a Saudi Arabian ship.