Law enforcement raises informing implicit "pink cocaine"
Sri Lanka's customs authorities arrested connected Friday a pistillate and seized the largest haul of cocaine ever detected astatine the country's main planetary airport, an authoritative said.
The unnamed 38-year-old Thai pistillate was carrying astir 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine stuffed into 3 plush toys, Customs Additional Director-General Seevali Arukgoda said.
"This is the biggest effort astatine cocaine smuggling stopped by Sri Lanka Customs astatine the airport," Arukgoda said successful a statement.
Customs officials astatine Bandaranaike International Airport posed for photos with the cocaine, which had been neatly stuffed into conscionable implicit 500 integrative capsules, with an estimated thoroughfare worth of $1.72 million.
The seizure follows 3 different hauls this period totaling astir 60 kilograms of synthetic cannabis.
Three overseas nationals -- from Britain, India, and Thailand -- were arrested successful abstracted cases.
The Briton, identified arsenic Charlotte May Lee, 21, a erstwhile compartment unit subordinate from London, was produced earlier a magistrate connected Friday and further remanded until June 13, tribunal officials said.
She was arrested connected May 12 erstwhile officials discovered that her 2 suitcases were packed with 46 kilograms of kush, a synthetic drug.
Lee told the BBC she had travelled from Bangkok to Sri Lanka's superior Colombo to renew her Thai visa. She described her surviving conditions astatine a situation successful Negombo, a metropolis conscionable northbound of the capital, saying she spends astir of her time inside, though she does get to spell extracurricular for caller air.
"I person ne'er been to situation and I've ne'er been to Sri Lanka," she told the BBC. "This vigor and conscionable sitting connected a factual level each of the time."
British pistillate accused of cause offences appears successful Sri Lanka tribunal https://t.co/s53nBjG2HZ
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 30, 2025All 4 suspects, including the Thai pistillate arrested connected Friday, could look beingness imprisonment if convicted.
Sri Lankan authorities person antecedently seized ample quantities of heroin disconnected the country's shores, suggesting the land is being utilized arsenic a transit hub for narcotics destined for different locations.
In October, a Sri Lankan tribunal sentenced 10 Iranian men to beingness imprisonment aft they pleaded blameworthy to smuggling much than 111 kilograms of heroin. In 2023, 9 Iranians received beingness sentences successful a abstracted cause smuggling case.
Sri Lanka's largest azygous seizure of narcotics occurred successful December 2016, erstwhile Customs recovered 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of cocaine successful a shipment instrumentality of timber addressed to a institution successful neighboring India.
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