Heroin busts increased in 2013
by Gihan Nicholas- January 4, 2014
The number of drug traffickers, as well as the quantities of heroin seized, saw a marked increase in 2013, compared to 2012.
According to statistics, a total of 296 Kg of heroin was confiscated in 2013, representing a sharp spike, as opposed to the 15 Kgs seized in 2012. A total of 76 direct drug peddlers were apprehended in 2013, compared to the 33 arrested in 2012, according to the statistics provided by the Police Narcotics Bureau. Five foreign nationals were arrested for direct peddling in 2013, while 23 were arrested the year before. The total number of direct female peddlers had seen a decrease by one digit, falling from seven in 2012 to six in 2013.
The number of total arrests, meanwhile, made in relation to drug offences in 2013 was 462, indicating a slight dip against the 544 arrests in 2012. The number of Court cases filed in 2013, however, decreased to 399, while the figure stood at 523 in 2012.
Meanwhile, among the variants of drugs seized, 5,147 Kgs of cannabis was seized in 2012, whereas only 166 Kgs was seized in 2013, showing a major decline.
Seizures of hashish and methamphetamines, however, had indicated borderline increments and declines respectively.
Death row prisoners protest on Sri Lankan jail rooftop 
by Gihan Nicholas- January 4, 2014The number of drug traffickers, as well as the quantities of heroin seized, saw a marked increase in 2013, compared to 2012.
According to statistics, a total of 296 Kg of heroin was confiscated in 2013, representing a sharp spike, as opposed to the 15 Kgs seized in 2012. A total of 76 direct drug peddlers were apprehended in 2013, compared to the 33 arrested in 2012, according to the statistics provided by the Police Narcotics Bureau. Five foreign nationals were arrested for direct peddling in 2013, while 23 were arrested the year before. The total number of direct female peddlers had seen a decrease by one digit, falling from seven in 2012 to six in 2013.
The number of total arrests, meanwhile, made in relation to drug offences in 2013 was 462, indicating a slight dip against the 544 arrests in 2012. The number of Court cases filed in 2013, however, decreased to 399, while the figure stood at 523 in 2012.
Meanwhile, among the variants of drugs seized, 5,147 Kgs of cannabis was seized in 2012, whereas only 166 Kgs was seized in 2013, showing a major decline.
Seizures of hashish and methamphetamines, however, had indicated borderline increments and declines respectively.
January 4, 2014
A group of death row prisoners at a Sri Lankan jail are staging a protest on its rooftop demanding their release, officials said on Saturday.“There are 27 inmates on rooftop. They demand they be freed,” Bogambara prison spokesman Gamini Kulatunga said, adding that all of them protesting at the jail in Kandy are death row convicts.
“18 of them are those who had been condemned for execution while six more of them are those who have appealed against (their) death sentence,” he said.
Executions do not take place in Sri Lanka even though death penalty is legal. No executions have taken place since June 23, 1976.
Successive Sri Lankan presidents since 1978 have declined to use hanging warrants for personal reasons. The death sentence therefore is commuted to life imprisonment.
Prisoners who have to suffer 20-year jail term instead of hanging seek remission at 10 years of their term, officials said.
However, at present no remission would be applicable until 20 years of sentence is completed. (PTI)
