COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s customs authorities arrested on Friday (May 30) a woman and seized the largest haul of cocaine ever detected at the country’s main international airport, an official said.
The unnamed 38-year-old Thai woman was carrying nearly 10kg of cocaine stuffed into three soft toys, Customs Additional Director-General Seevali Arukgoda said.
“This is the biggest attempt at cocaine smuggling stopped by Sri Lanka Customs at the airport,” Arukgoda said in a statement.
Customs officials at Bandaranaike International Airport posed for photos with the cocaine, which had been neatly stuffed into just over 500 plastic capsules, with an estimated street value of US$1.72 million.
The seizure follows three other hauls this month totalling nearly 60kg of synthetic cannabis.
Three foreign nationals – from Britain, India, and Thailand – were arrested in separate cases.
The Briton, identified as Charlotte May Lee, 21, a former cabin crew member from London, was produced before a magistrate on Friday and further remanded until June 13, court officials said.
She was arrested on May 12 when officials discovered that her two suitcases were packed with 46kg of kush, a synthetic drug.
All four suspects, including the Thai woman arrested on Friday, could face life imprisonment if convicted.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously seized large quantities of heroin off the country’s shores, suggesting the island is being used as a transit hub for narcotics destined for other locations.
In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 111kg of heroin. In 2023, nine Iranians received life sentences in a separate drug smuggling case.
Sri Lanka’s largest single seizure of narcotics occurred in December 2016, when Customs found 800kg of cocaine in a transhipment container of timber addressed to a company in neighbouring India.
