Politicians are involved…
The police are involved…
In the past, when we thought of the underworld, we remembered a deep cliff, but today the situation is different. Nowadays, the moment one mentions the underworld (Sri Lankan underworld), the image of a bearded thug with tattoos on his arms and legs is drawn in the mind of even a small child. That is how the underworld and criminals are intertwined. In addition, this underworld also manages all the drug smuggling to Sri Lanka. And the unstoppable underworld thugs will do more. This underworld is also behind crimes like kidnapping and murder for hire. All these are what the Police and Criminal Investigation Department of Sri Lanka found and discovered, not what we found.
According to those responsible for law and order, suppressing this underworld is not easy. The reason is that although the underworld is in Sri Lanka, it operates from Dubai or some other foreign country. We cannot stop the underground operations from those countries from here. The underworld thugs in those countries do not count here. So we have to issue international warrants and take the help of appropriate countries to arrest those underworld thugs. Succeeding in such efforts is not easy because of the laws in place in those countries.
In any case, it is not that there are no cases where foreign based underworld members are occasionally caught by the law and brought to this country. The best example that can be given in the recent period is Nandun Chintaka or ‘Harak Kata’ and Kudu Salindu brought to Sri Lanka after being arrested in Madagascar. Before the heat of the incident, another named member of the underworld was arrested in France. It is the ‘powdered anchovies’ of Ratmalana. Anju, the drug accused by the police of being responsible for a large number of crimes, including the murder of cricketer Dhananjaya de Silva’s father, has not yet been brought to Sri Lanka and negotiations are still underway for that.
Whether Kudu Anju is brought to this country or not will decide the future. But earlier, the Sri Lankan police managed to arrest a large number of underworld members. The police alleged that all of them are directly involved in drug trafficking and murders in Sri Lanka. They were charged with murder and extortion. Therefore, it is needless to say that every time these underworld leaders were arrested, the people of this country felt a certain amount of comfort. It is said that the bringing of drugs to this country will decrease to some extent. Or because they had the feeling that those responsible for hooliganism including human killings would be punished.
January 2015 may be the closest opportunity to approach this topic without going too far. That is because Samantha Kumara or ‘Welesuda’ who was baptized as Sri Lanka’s number one drug trafficker was arrested in Pakistan in that month. At that time, Suda was known as the mastermind of drug trafficking in Sri Lanka. As someone involved in many underworld activities. Media reports quoted security chiefs at the time as saying that his arrest would completely disable the drug distribution network in Sri Lanka and arrest all the wholesale and retail dealers.
Compared to the arrest of Vele Suda, the number of drug arrests in Sri Lanka also increased. The number of raids carried out in various parts of the country and in Indo-Lankan waters also increased. The powder that used to be caught in grams was caught in twenty-five kilos in those days. The people of the country hoped that Sri Lanka would soon become a land-free region.
Finally, Velesuda was brought before the court. During the trial, information also came to light about artists who received privileges from Vele Suda. Accordingly, it became clear to the country that drug traffickers are a group with an extensive network of relationships. Finally, Wele Suda was sued and the verdict was given on October 14, 2015. He was sentenced to death by that verdict. The verdict is not surprising. Because according to the law at that time, possession of more than 2 grams of heroin was punishable by death.
Samantha Kumara alias Vele Suda, who was known as the ‘Godfather’ of bringing drugs to the country, and known to the country as an international drug trafficker, was charged with possessing 7.05 grams of heroin. That amount of heroin was also not found after his arrest. In fact, the verdict sent Vele Suda in was given in relation to an arrest made on December 04, 2008 in the area of Mt.Lavinia.
This event is not second to strugling a mountain and giving birth to a rat. Arresting kilos of drugs around the country and making shows that all of them belonged to Vele Suda, prosecuting someone like Vele Suda who was anointed as an international drug trafficker for 7 grams of heroin was a big joke. Although Vele Suda went to jail, the drug trade in Sri Lanka did not change by a single hair. As usual, drug seizures were reported. Apart from that, there is no report that anyone else was arrested based on the information said to have been obtained from him during the interrogation.
As the memory of Vele Suda faded away, Makandure Madushya rose from the other side. Samarasinghe Arachchila’s Madush Lakshita alias Makandure Madush was recognized as a number one underworld leader. Madush, who was accused of many crimes including murder, had fled the country for a long time and was living in Dubai. From there, he led the Sri Lankan underworld and was arrested on or around the fourth of February 2019 during a party held in a hotel in that country.
Not only Makandure Madush will be arrested there. Another known underworld member Keselwatte Dinuka and several others were arrested along with Madush. A famous singer Amal Perera was among them. The local authorities decide to extradite Madush, who was arrested in Dubai, to Sri Lanka amid strong opposition from his lawyers. Even though the lawyers pointed out that there were threats to Madush’s life, the country’s court extradited Madush to Sri Lanka.
With the arrest of Madush, who was known as the godfather of the Sri Lankan underworld and the number one drug dealer in the region, everyone hoped that a large part of the Sri Lankan drug trade would be abolished. And everyone hoped that he would be charged with murder and other criminal charges.
Brought to Sri Lanka, Madush was brought before the court on several occasions but was detained under the Police Criminal Investigation Department for over 18 months. Even the Police Media Spokesman said that during his interrogation, the names of nearly 80 politicians of Sri Lanka involved in drug trafficking were revealed.
In addition, I remember that the opposition members said this even in the parliament. Accordingly, the people of this country hoped that many powerful politicians would go to Welikada or Bogambara to buy iron rods the day after tomorrow. But when Madush was in charge of the Police Criminal Investigation Unit, not a single politician was questioned. At least one response was not recorded. Drug trafficking in this country did not stop even when Madush was in custody.
But the police and other officials said that the mastermind of drug trafficking in this country is in police custody. Anyway, on October 20, 2020, Madush went to the Maligawatta housing complex with the police to seize 22 kilos of drugs said to be hidden there. But that will be Madush’s last journey. An unknown gunman appeared from nowhere and shot Madush’s body to pieces and killed him. The gunman who killed Madush and escaped from Nivihanahilla has not been found even today.
The disappearance of Makandure Madush from Sri Lanka’s underworld like this must have been a great freedom for the politicians who revealed his name to others. Even though Madush’s role ended like that, drug or underworld activities in Sri Lanka did not stop or decrease. It was a matter that was impossible to imagine even now who is actually running the Sri Lankan underworld. It is at this point that Nandun Chintaka or ‘Harak Kata’ comes into play. Arresting Harak Kata, who ran away from Sri Lanka and led the country’s underworld, was a real challenge for the Sri Lankan police. It is in this background that international red warrants are issued for cattle slaughter.
Although Harak Kata was arrested in Malaysia on a red warrant, the local authorities released him before bringing him to Sri Lanka under the extradition law. Nandun Chintaka or Harak Kata, who escaped that way, was arrested again two months ago in Madagascar. That was while looking for investment opportunities in the country as millionaire businessmen.
Four other people including Salindu Ratnayake alias Kudu Salindu of Panadura were arrested along with Harak Kata. They were able to bring that group to Sri Lanka amid many difficulties. Now, according to the police, the mastermind is none other than Nandun Chintaka or Harak Kata. He has done a number of underworld activities including leading the network related to the sale of drugs throughout Sri Lanka. In addition, the shooter Booru Muna, who committed several murders on his behalf, is now in custody. But there is still no shortage of drug sales in Sri Lanka. Shootings and killings are still happening across the country. Although they said that the two of them provided important information about drug trafficking and underworld activities, no one was arrested or interrogated.
Kanjipani Imranda, another known underworld figure, recently escaped to India under the cover of Sri Lankan police. The media had reported that Kanjipani, who fled from Sri Lanka to India on the same day he was granted bail after being imprisoned for a long time, is now in Pakistan.
Ratmalane Kudu Anju, who is known as another mastermind of Sri Lanka’s underworld and drug trafficking, emerged from France the day before yesterday. Anju, who has been accused of masterminding the murder of municipal councilor Ranjan de Silva, the father of Sri Lankan cricketer Dhananjaya de Silva, is also a red warrant issued criminal.
Having fled the country due to a conflict with Reha in Gona Kovil, he is caught by the French police in an unexpected way. It was because of a dispute with his wife. According to her complaint to the local police, the local police have arrested Anju. She has revealed to the police that her husband is a red warrant officer.
Powdered Anju is still in France. Bringing him to Sri Lanka will not be easy. The reason is that he requested political asylum in that country. The other thing is that the world has now accepted that the suspects are very unsafe in Sri Lanka. Whether Anju is brought to this country tomorrow or not, he is in the custody of the French police. But still the underworld activities in Sri Lanka have not decreased at all.