Sri Lanka police report 28,441 kg of cannabis in two years of raids
Sri Lanka Police said 597,964 drug-related operations over the past two years involved 596,591 suspects and recovered 43,726 kilograms of narcotics, of which 28,441 kilograms was cannabis. Police valued the whole haul at about Rs. 224 billion and also reported 4,056 firearms and weapons seized in the same period.
Sri Lanka Police said that 4,056 firearms and weapons were seized across the
country during the past two years, in a national two-year enforcement tally.[1]The police breakdown listed 97 T-56 rifles and one AK-47 assault rifle
among the weapons seized.[1]The same breakdown listed 143 pistols, 105
revolvers and 397 12-bore shotguns.[2]
In the same two-year period police conducted 597,964 drug-related raids and
operations across the country, in a nationwide effort covering all drugs rather
than cannabis alone.[2]Police said those operations involved 596,591 suspects
and recovered 43,726 kilograms of narcotics in total.[1]Within that total,
police reported 28,441 kilograms of cannabis, alongside 4,009 kilograms of
heroin and 6,526 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, which the sources call
Ice.[3]Police estimated the value of the whole narcotics haul, not the
cannabis alone, at around Rs. 224 billion.[4]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The article gives no date for when the police statement was made; 6 November 2026 is its publication date and is used as the incident date.
The Rs. 224 billion is the police estimate for the whole narcotics haul, heroin and methamphetamine included, not for cannabis alone, so it is not recorded as a cannabis value.
The 596,591 suspects cover all drug-related operations, and no separate cannabis arrest count was published.
The article does not say whether the cannabis figure includes seized plants or their weight.
The statement does not name the start and end dates of the two-year period it covers.
Only secondary accounts of the police statement were found; the police release itself was not published on the pages opened.
Sri Lanka Customs opened nine uncollected foreign postal parcels at the Central Mail Exchange in Colombo and seized kush, hashish, ecstasy and cocaine worth Rs 60.26 million. The parcels came from Thailand, Spain, Britain and the US; the drugs went to the Police Narcotic Bureau.
Sri Lanka Customs found 2.4 kg of cannabis and 12.4 kg of hashish worth Rs 157 million hidden inside wooden table boards shipped from Thailand as a gift. A 29-year-old suspect from Ragama was taken into Customs custody.
The Sri Lanka Navy intercepted a dinghy in Jaffna's Gurunagar lagoon and reported recovering over 192 kg of foreign cannabis in 88 parcels packed into seven sacks. One suspect and the seizure were handed to the Jaffna police for further legal action.
Police Narcotics Bureau officers found two abandoned bags holding 60 airtight packets of kush cannabis near baggage belt 6 at Bandaranaike International Airport on the morning of 15 September 2026. Police suspect the bags came off SriLankan Airlines flight UL 405 from Bangkok the previous day; the passenger is believed to have fled.
