A container linked to suspected drug production has raised alarm after revelations it was released from Sri Lanka Customs during a congestion crisis, alongside 323 other red-labeled containers. Was it disguised as harmless salt?
Former Provincial Councilor Waruna Rajapaksa has alleged that the controversial chemical stock recovered from a land in Middeniya Thalawa, suspected of being used in the production of ice drugs, was imported into Sri Lanka under highly questionable circumstances earlier this year.
Speaking on his social media, Rajapaksa claimed the container carrying the chemicals was released from Sri Lanka Customs on January 26, at a time when the port was overwhelmed with congestion. According to him, during that period, authorities hurriedly released a large number of containers with red warning labels to ease the backlog.
Rajapaksa further alleged that the chemicals might have been smuggled in by disguising them as salt, since salt consignments were also being imported around the same time. “Salt and these chemicals are very similar in appearance,” he noted, urging investigators to carefully probe whether this suspicious similarity enabled the container to slip through Customs screening.
He emphasized that serious questions need to be asked about whether the release of this container was linked to the batch of 323 red-labeled containers that were cleared under the guise of managing congestion.
“This incident is not an isolated one. The similarities between salt imports and chemical stocks cannot be ignored. Investigators should carefully examine whether this was part of a larger organized scheme,” Rajapaksa insisted.
Authorities are now under pressure to determine how a container tied to such a dangerous find in Middeniya was released without proper scrutiny and whether corruption or negligence allowed drug-related chemicals to be smuggled in under the guise of legal imports.
