{"id":132410,"date":"2026-09-02T22:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=132410"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:11:27","slug":"sri-lankan-us-anti-narcotics-agents-bust-pakistani-drug-network-in-colombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/132410\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan, US anti-narcotics agents bust Pakistani drug network in Colombo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COLOMBO(National Times)- Anti-narcotics agents from the United States and Sri Lanka seized almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine following a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some 463 kilos of the synthetic drug were seized from a shipping container that arrived in Colombo over the weekend and two Pakistani men were arrested, police deputy inspector-general Ashoka Dharmasena told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US embassy in Colombo said the narcotics, valued at $21 million and concealed in bath towels, were meant to be smuggled to international markets via Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US Drug Enforcement Administration\u2019s office and Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau conducted the joint operation, the embassy said in a statement, after tracking shipping containers from Pakistan between August 14-29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis operation underscores the strength of the US-Sri Lanka partnership in dismantling transnational criminal organisations that fund terrorism and threaten communities in both our countries,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dharmasena said they had also arrested a local man in connection with the latest methamphetamine seizure and confirmed the operation followed a \u201ctip-off\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sri Lanka\u2019s ongoing anti-narcotics drive since October has resulted in the seizure of nearly 14 tonnes of illegal drugs, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The haul includes methamphetamine, also known as ice, heroin and cocaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sri Lanka\u2019s Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament that most of the illegal drugs originated in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and were being smuggled into the island by sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said there were an estimated 400,000 drug users in the island nation of 22 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In October 2024, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to heroin smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sri Lanka\u2019s largest single seizure of narcotics was in December 2016, when customs officials found 800 kilos of cocaine in a shipping container of timber destined for India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COLOMBO(National Times)- Anti-narcotics agents from the United States and Sri Lanka seized almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine following a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said on Wednesday. Some 463 kilos of the synthetic drug were seized from a shipping container that arrived in Colombo over the weekend and two Pakistani [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sri Lankan, US anti-narcotics agents bust Pakistani drug network in Colombo - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/132410\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sri Lankan, US anti-narcotics agents bust Pakistani drug network in Colombo - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COLOMBO(National Times)- Anti-narcotics agents from the United States and Sri Lanka seized almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine following a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said on Wednesday. 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