Underworld Uses Business Fronts to Smuggle Drugs by Sea : Air Force Chief

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Air Force Commander Air Marshal Vasu Bandu Edirisinghe revealed the scale and complexity of Sri Lanka’s ongoing efforts to intercept narcotics trafficked into the country via maritime routes.

Air Marshal Edirisinghe disclosed that the Air Force, in collaboration with the Navy, Police, and Narcotics Bureau, conducts daily surveillance operations across the southern and western seas. “We have three aircraft monitoring vast stretches of ocean. Some days, we travel over 1000 nautical miles to reach suspected zones,” he stated.

He emphasized that many of the intercepted shipments originate from regions with limited governmental control, such as parts of Iran and Pakistan. “These areas are often beyond the reach of their own authorities. That’s where most of the shipments come from,” he explained.

The Air Marshal noted that while some drugs are intercepted en route from European ports, many are hidden in containers or smuggled through airports using sophisticated concealment methods. “Only a fraction gets caught. Most are hidden with precision,” he said.

He also highlighted the role of Sri Lanka’s intelligence services, including the CID and Police, in tracking these networks both locally and abroad. “We’ve even sent teams to those countries to investigate. That’s how we identify the boats and their operators,” he added.

“The ones who get caught are often just the boat owners. But behind them are powerful underworld figures who operate under the guise of legitimate business,” Edirisinghe said. He described how some smugglers maintain homes in Sri Lanka while residing abroad, using southern islands as transfer points for narcotics.

The Navy, he confirmed, is conducting large-scale operations in these areas, deploying major vessels to intercept and dismantle trafficking routes.