The Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen praised the employees of Lanka Sathosa, Rathmalana for their prompt action to avert a load of deadly narcotics from leaking to the public and informing the Police on 19 July.
A cocaine haul of 150 Kg has been detected by employees of Lanka Sathosa in a container addressed to CWE (Sathosa) on the afternoon of 19 July.
The detection was made at the warehouse of CWE (Sathosa) Rathmalana Economic Centre while offloading container contents on July 19.
A tender bid for sugar supplies, was called on 18 July 2017 by CWE (Sathosa) and a private sector sugar supplier called Ranjitha Traders was selected on the same day due to their fulfilment of specified tender criteria.
The qualified Ranjitha Traders thereafter has despatched this sugar container to CWE warehouse at Ratmalana Economic Centre.
The country of origin of the container is Brazil.ย Upon arrival of the container to Colombo Port, the container was taken to Orugodawatta Container Terminalย Yard was inspected and re-sealed.
Lanka Sathosa employees received the container fully sealed.
They opened the container and began unloading contents from the container (placed on the private owned container transport vehicle) and loading the cargo to CWE goods-lorry.
Moments later Lanka Sathosa employees who were transferring cargo from container to CWE lorry detected the unusual parcel inside the container, stopped their work and immediately informed Mt Lavinia Police of the suspicious cargo.
The Police who arrived identified the cargo to be 150 Kg of cocaine.
Police investigations are continuing.
Minister Bathiudeen too directed Lanka Sathosa Chairman to investigate and report to on this incident.
Leader of All Ceylon Makkal Congress