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How the drug menace thrives

The seizure by police of a consignment of heroin valued at over Rs. 25 million, off the Marawila coast on Tuesday, is strong proof that the smuggling of hard drugs into Sri Lanka is continuing vibrantly. This is also evidence that Sri Lanka is continuing to be a vital conduit for hard drug trafficking in the region.

An important disclosure in Tuesday's detection in the adjacent seas, was the reported involvement of a politician in the smuggling operation. Reports said that it was suspected that the smuggling of heroin under the protection of this politician had gone on for a considerable period of time. This detection alone, thus, reveals for us most of the important dimensions in the country's hard drugs cancer. While there is no doubt that this vicious blight has been thriving over the years, at great cost to the people and the country, what has been less known is that it has been proliferating under the protective care of the powerful and the influential. The politician's involvement in heroin smuggling operation in Marawila bears this out.

We are told that two operatives in the smuggling bid were arrested by the police while trying to swim ashore with the deadly contraband but what should be remembered is that unless and until the lynchpins in the sinister business are brought to justice, the hard drugs menace would continue to spread its tentacles. The intriguing aspect of the smuggling of hard drugs is that it is mostly the "lesser mortals" who are held by the authorities. The "big sharks" seem to be evading the law and order agencies' dragnet.

It is believed with good reason that some among the rich and powerful are at the helm of the dehumanising business which is the smuggling of hard drugs. It is only when these elements are brought to justice that the drug problem here could be contained.

We in Sri Lanka are familiar with the phenomenon of narco-terrorism. It is now well established that insurrectionist and insurgent groups in some of the world's trouble spots are neck deep in the smuggling of hard drugs. The proceeds from the peddling of these drugs are used by these groups to replenish their war chests. With Afghanistan sinking further into war and lawlessness these tendencies could now be increasingly pronounced with Lanka too being progressively sucked into the narco-terrorism vortex.

The law and order agencies in Sri Lanka need to collaborate more closely with international law and order bodies to bring the blight of hard drugs smuggling under control. At home, the law enforcement machinery should be used more rigorously to contain the local collaborators of the deadly menace.

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