Massive consignment of refuse tea seized

Sandasen Marasinghe

A massive consignment of refuse tea that was prepared for export has been seized by the Police Special Task Force in an attempt to prevent export of refuse tea, that is mostly responsible for the drop in Sri Lankan tea's ranking as the world's best tea.

The STF seized the refuse tea weighing 20,000 kgs at Ambatale road, Mulleriyawa when it was in the process of being readied for export to Congo and Ghana on Wednesday evening.

The STF also took into custody two persons in connection with the racket. The STF also seized 3000 empty boxes and 2000 empty tin cans and 50 kg empty sacks that were used to export tea.

The STF seized 120,000 kg of refuse tea last month alone during several raids,acting on the instructions of Defence and Urban Development Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. .

According to sources, errant traders export refuse tea under the brand name of Sri Lankan tea. A large number of such tea containers exported by these errant traders have been rejected by Iran which had a negative effect on the Sri Lankan tea market. The sources revealed that these unscrupulous traders used a deserted warehouse or any other place to mix and pack such tea.

It is also revealed that the laws to deal with such errant traders were inadequate to prevent them from exporting low quality tea. Though export of a single container of refuse tea brings in a net profit of around 1.5 million to the errant trader, they are only fined if they are nabbed. Hence, the suspects never hesitate to plead not guilty and pay the fine and to resume the business, which not only affects the market of the Sri Lankan tea industry but also deprives the country of a massive revenue.

The two suspects of the Maulleriyawa racket were from Edanada Para, Wattala and Dematagoda. The raid in Mulleriyawa was conducted by a group of STF personnel led by IP Nadeeka Silva supervised by the Director of STF Intelligence SP Waruna Jayasundara acting under the directions of the STF commandant DIG R W M C Ranawana.