Overview
- Customs at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport found roughly 110 to 112 kilograms of cannabis hidden in false suitcase linings as the monks returned from Thailand.
- Police say each traveler carried about five kilograms, including the potent strain known as Kush and some hashish, with the haul valued by local media at around $3 million.
- The detainees were presented to a court in Negombo and remain in custody while investigators work to identify the organizer and the source of funding.
- Investigators report that a fellow monk who arranged the trip told others the parcels were donations, and officers later arrested him after he fled the airport.
- Police are probing ties to an earlier smuggling run in March, and warn that Sri Lanka’s drug laws allow long prison terms or even life sentences for trafficking.