Police Foil Gruesome Murder Plan Linked To Major Drug Bust

He Was Sent to Kill the Informant, Police Got Him First

COLOMBO (News 1st); A gunman who attempted to kill an undercover informant involved in a major narcotics seizure in Kirinda has been arrested, police said. The suspect was taken into custody while hiding in the Ratnapura area.

The arrested individual is a 35-year-old resident of Yakkalamulla, Galle, and a former member of the Sri Lanka Army who had been legally discharged from service.

The murder plot was linked to the seizure of a stock of ice narcotics worth approximately Rs. 350 million, along with the arrest of seven suspects on November 12 last year in the Kirinda–Andagala Wella coastal area. The bust was carried out during a special operation based on intelligence received by Assistant Superintendent of Police Rohan Olugala.

For the operation, police had deployed a relative of an officer attached to the relevant police jurisdiction as an undercover informant.

However, after the identity of the informant was exposed, drug traffickers allegedly planned to kill him.

According to police, the gunman arrested yesterday had been assigned to carry out the murder.

Following reports received regarding the assassination plot, the Western Province North Crimes Division arrested the gunman involved in the plan.

Police say the suspect confessed that the operation was to be carried out using a vehicle similar to a police jeep.

The plan involved abducting the informant from his home, murdering him, decapitating his head, and dumping the head in the garden of ASP Rohan Olugala’s residence.

The arrested suspect further revealed that an organised criminal known as Angoda Priyankara, who had planned the murder, had instructed him that additional individuals would be provided to assist with transporting the head after the decapitation.

Police investigations are ongoing.