Govt. in talks to round up Lankan drug lords living overseas – Defence Secretary

The government has held several rounds of discussions with countries where big-time Sri Lankan narcotics ringleaders live, and also issued 18 ‘red notices’ through Interpol to arrest the drug lords evading justice, Defence Secretary Gen. (Retd.) Kamal Gunaratne said.

“We will ensure that there is no longer room for them to run drug operations from overseas”, he stressed.

“We are optimistic of having these fugitives rounded up this year”, he told the media in Colombo last week.

He said that necessary steps have been taken to thwart any form of separatism and extremism in the country.

“We have weekly discussions on these issues which also cover underworld activities”, he noted. Responding to a question from the media he assured that nobody would be allowed to take up arms. The Defence Secretary said that remand prisoners involved in large-scale drug rings will not be released due to space constraints and the spread of coronavirus in prisons.

On alleged human rights violations likely to be raised again during the first quarter of the new year, he said,

“These allegations have been levelled against our military since 2009” and asserted that “there were no war crimes committed since we led a humanitarian operation”.