Overview
- Customs officers at Bandaranaike International Airport found about 110 kilograms of kush and hashish hidden in false-bottom suitcases carried by 22 people in monastic robes who arrived from Bangkok.
- Officials said each traveler had roughly five kilograms in a single bag and valued the haul at about 1.1 billion rupees, calling it the airport’s largest cannabis seizure on record.
- A court in Negombo remanded the 22 in custody for further questioning, and police later arrested a 23rd monk who is accused of organizing the trip.
- Police say an unnamed sponsor paid for a four-day visit to Thailand and they are probing the source of the drugs, the financing, and any wider network, with a tip-off and phone images informing the inquiry.
- Senior Buddhist leaders condemned the detainees as impostors and urged tighter checks on monastic ranks, while state media noted this was the first such arrest of monks for drug carrying at the airport.