Sri Lanka Navy seized over 216kg of Kerala cannabis and arrested three suspects in a special operation in seas north of Kankasanthurai, Jaffna, on July 22.
The street value of the seized stock of Kerala cannabis is believed to be over 65 million Sri Lankan Rupees.
The smuggling of cannabis (Ganja) has significantly increased after the end of the war. In 2016, Tamil Net reported that the Sri Lankan military under Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former ‘Defence Secretary’ of occupying Colombo, deployed narcotics as a tool of genocidal war against Eelam Tamils. It was largely the Mannar area, which functioned as the hub for drug smuggling during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. The transition to Jaffna has taken place during the rule of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe.
