Massive toddy bottling plant raided

Rasika Somarathna

MADAMPE: The Excise Department raided a massive toddy bottling plant in Galmuruwa-Madampe and seized illicit liquor worth of more than Rs. 5 Million yesterday, Excise Department sources said.

Although the owner of this plant had a licence to produce Toddy he had used this as a shield to run an undercover operation in producing illicit liquor. He had been running a lucrative business transporting the production to most parts of the country and he also had exported a large stock to a western country. The excise officers found documents where the authorities of the said country had condemned the exported stock as unsuitable for human consumption.

When the officers raided the place they had found three lorries loaded with 13368 bottles of illicit liquor which were due to be transported to the hill country and officers seized 5000 litres of illicit liquor.

The raid was possible due to a tip off received by Commissioner General of excise Parakrama Bandara Ekanayake. The commissioner imposed a fine of Rs. 1.7 million on the main suspect. The raid was led by officers E. M. T. B. Ekanayake and Nimal Shantha. The cache was destroyed.

In a separate incident excise officers raided six illicit liquor production plants and took into custody 13 people with 1400 litres of goda, 63700 ml of illicit liquor and 20 barrels. The Dambulla Magistrate fined the culprits Rs. 195,000 for the offences.