Illicit liquor haul worth Rs. 20m seized

Rasika Somarathna and Dharma Sri Abeyratne

COLOMBO: The Excise Department seized illicit liquor worth Rs. 20 million and arrested 3,260 persons who acted in violation of the Vesak week liquor ban imposed by the Government.

The ban was imposed from April 29 to May 5. During this period, Excise sleuths conducted 3,012 successful raids throughout the country.

He said, 10 licensed liquor outlets which had conducted businesses during the ban have had their licenses temporarily revoked until proper investigations are conducted. In the course of these raids, Excise officers seized 4,258 bottles of illegal spirits, 13,122 bottles of illicit liquor/toddy, 5,080 bottles of licensed liquor and 270 kg of Cannabis.

In addition, 142 illicit distilleries were raided along with 1,768 outlets for selling liquor during the ban and 94 locations which stored large stocks of liquor were also detected. According to Commissioner General Parakrama Bandara Ekanayake, the Department took action to strictly enforce the ban with a large number of officers deployed throughout the country to carry out raids against offenders.

Accordingly successful raids were conducted throughout the country with the highest number of raids (869) in the Western Province followed by Central Province-445, Eastern Province -176, North-136, North Western-96, Wayamba-445, Sabaragamuwa-229, Southern-426 and Uva-153. In addition 169 raids were conducted by the Colombo and Kandy special Units.

According to Excise sources, this year there has been an unusually large number of detections chiefly due to the support extended by the public in apprehending the offenders.

Commissioner General of Excise Parakrama Bandara Ekanayake expressed his gratitude to the public for their cooperation. According to the Excise spokesman, about 90 per cent of the raids were based on information received from the public.

Excise Dept. seeks public assistance

COLOMBO: The Excise Department is seeking public assistance in its stepped up campaign to rid the country of the scourge of narcotics and illicit liquor by providing the Department with information about all such activities.

Acting in concept with the Government's Mathata Thitha programme, the Excise Department has been conducting raids throughout the country.

Sources said, a clear decline in narcotics and illicit liquor sales and consumption could be seen as a result of the continuous raids being carried out by the Excise Department together with the Police.

Therefore, the public are duty bound to provide all information in their possession to facilitate detections in order to ensure a better society, an officer of the Excise Special Investigation Bureau pointed out.

Informants can directly contact the Excise Department on 011-2300170 at any time of the day. The identity of the informant would be kept confidential.