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| Thursday, 20 November 2003 |
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Customs seize spy planes by Asanga Warnakulasuriya A container with two Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV) usually used by intelligence agencies to take spy shots was taken into custody by the Customs Preventive Unit on Tuesday. " The two UAVs capable of taking surveillance shots from the air can be assembled by a skilled mechanic within 10 minutes using only a screwdriver," Chief Preventive Officer (CPO) of Customs Preventive Unit, Bennet Ratnayake said. This is the first-ever detection of such modern miniature aircraft in Sri Lanka, which could pose a threat to national security, he said. These drones can be loaded with explosives and flown to a desired location, using the highly sensitive six channel radio frequency remote control, the CPO told the Daily News. Custom officers found three ultra sensitive radio antennae, each of which can pinpoint objects within a radius of 60 km. A high ranking Navy officer revealed that the three antennaes can cover a total distance of 180 km. They are currently used only by the Navy. Officers also found 160 compasses used for precision map drawing and several hundreds of international military, naval and gun magazines inside the container. The UAVs named Cessna and Skyline-152 weigh only five kgs each and have an engine capacity of approximately 0.5 cc each. The fibre made Cessna, five feet long with a wingspan of 84 inches was fitted with a silicone fuel tank to protect it from overheating. Though said to be manufactured in Vietnam, the brand Cessna is American. The container brought to Sri Lanka on September 25 from Jakarta, Indonesia was under the name of a leading logistics firm in Narahenpita. The container had been held by Customs Prevention Unit for further inspection. The Customs had then requested the logistic firm to produce the documents, which they failed to do, Ratnayake said. He said that following the Customs request, the Logistics firm had allegedly tried to send the container to Singapore stating that the container arrived in Sri Lanka by mistake. The Customs who opened the container in front of two company officials found perfumed soaps in the first part of the container and colour televisions in the middle section. They found the parts of two aircraft and three antennaes in the last section of the container. The logistics firm is also alleged to have been behind the smuggling of cigarettes to Sri Lanka. A container load of such cigarettes worth Rs. 2.9 million was taken into custody at Wellawatte. |
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