COLOMBO: Anti-narcotics agents from the US and Sri Lanka seized almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine following a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said on Wednesday.
Some 463 kilos of the synthetic drug were seized from a shipping container that arrived in Colombo over the weekend and two Pakistani men were arrested, police deputy inspector-general Ashoka Dharmasena told reporters.
The US embassy in Colombo said the narcotics, valued at $21 million and concealed in bath towels, were meant to be smuggled to international markets. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau conducted the joint operation, the embassy said in a statement, after tracking shipping containers from Pakistan.
Dharmasena said they had also arrested a local man in connection with the latest methamphetamine seizure and confirmed the operation followed a “tip-off”. Sri Lanka’s Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament that most of the illegal drugs originated in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and were being smuggled into the island by sea.
Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2026
