Almost two metric tons of narcotic drugs were seized and over 39,428 suspects taken in for questioning in 39,671 raids from January 1 to November 7 this year.
Accordingly, 145 kgs heroin, 370 kg s of cocaine, 103 kgs of ice and 38 kgs of hashish were seized in joint operations conducted by officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau and the Navy, Kurunegala SSP R.M. Seneviratne told the Sunday Observer. Among the suspects, 6,345 were females and 1,290 schoolchildren. Around 3,127 of them are Government employees. Many of them were those with links to recent murder cases. About 1,345 of them are alleged to have had links to vandalism, treasure hunting and house-breaking and large scale robberies.
He said about 782 suspects were accused of sexual harassment of schoolgirls and Government and private sector female employees. “Many school and university students too are addicted to drugs and liquor. The Education Ministry will hold awareness programs on the ills of drug addiction for students, past pupils and parents at school level. About 16,400 education programs will be conducted during the next two months in schools and at Sunday Dhamma schools in collaboration with the clergy and laity,” he said.
SSP Seneviratne said many youngsters had taken to drugs, committed robberies to purchase drugs and had become a threat to the country due to their parents’ carelessness.
About 15,000 specially-trained police officers would be deployed early next year to conduct raids on drug dealers and drug addicts countrywide and the facilities to rehabilitate the drug victims would also be intensified at a cost of Rs. 125 million, he added.