The incidence of crime was higher the Western and Southern provinces and over 100 had been reported from those areas by the end of last year, the Commandant of the Police Special Task Force (STF), DIG Waruna Jayasundara said in a television discusson on Wednesday.

Jayasundara said that most of the STF personnel were stationed in those two provinces.

Seventeen organised active criminal gangs operated in the two provinces with the WP accounting for 12 of them, the STF Chief said.

Police had identified the leaders of those gangs, Jayasundara said, adding that the soaring cost of living, the setbacks the rule of law had suffered were the main reasons for the increase in the incidence of crime.

“There are 17 main gangs in the Western and Southern provinces and their leaders are operating from overseas. We are working with the CID and Interpol to have them extradited. It is not going to be an easy task. I have deployed a lot of STF personnel in the two provinces. Since then there have been only three shootings in the Southern Province.

There have been 31 shootings by organised criminal gangs during the past three months. STF has arrested 85 people in addition to arrests made by the regular police. A number of criminals have died in shootouts. Most of the victims are gang members fighting turf wars.

Jayasundara added that the leaders of those gangs were in Dubai, and most of their members in Sri Lanka were foot soldiers.

“These groups can hire someone to kill a person for 100,000 or 150,000 rupees. There are many Army deserters among them. Right now, the conviction rate is very low. If justice served expeditiously, it will serves as a deterrent.”

“We are now also into digital forensics analysis and computer crime. A number of officers have been sent overseas for training,” he said.

The STF Commandant said that CCTV cameras helped police solve a lot of crime. However, for CCTV footage to be optimal, the camera has to be within nine feet from the target, he added.