13,666 arrested, 272 kg cannabis seized in Yukthiya week one
Sri Lankan police arrested 13,666 suspects and sent 1,097 drug users to rehabilitation during the first week of the island-wide Operation Yukthiya ending 24 December 2023. Police said the week produced 272 kg of cannabis and 944,651 cannabis plants alongside heroin, ice and other drugs.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka, island-wide across all provinces · Sri Lanka
Police arrested 13,666 suspects during that first week.[1][2][3]Of those arrested,
1,107 were people listed as island reconvicted criminals.[4]Police held 717
suspects under detention orders for further investigation.[4]Another 1,097
drug users were sent to rehabilitation centres, while 174 suspects faced
investigations into illegally acquired assets.[4][2][3]
Police said the week produced 272 kilograms of cannabis within almost 440
kilograms of narcotics.[1][2]Authorities described Sri Lanka as a
drug-trafficking transit point in the Indian Ocean.[1][2]
The week-long drive was backed by the military.[1]Local media showed police
and soldiers using sniffer dogs to search homes in the capital and elsewhere.[1]Human rights lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah said the raids were illegal because
they were conducted without search warrants.[1][2][3]Activist Ambika Satkunanathan
said the searches were not based on evidence and targeted only poor areas.[1][2][3]She added that police were arresting users and small-time dealers rather than
focusing on large-scale traffickers.[1][2]Police said raids would pause over
Christmas for security duties and resume after Tuesday, a Buddhist holiday.[1]
A police spokesman told the BBC that warrants were not always required to check for drugs.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
BBC Newsbbc.comSri Lanka: Thousands arrested in week-long anti-drug operation
Daily Mirrordailymirror.lkWeek long ’Yukthiya’ operation nets 13,666 suspects with over 1,000 listed criminals
Open questions the AI reported
The hashish weight is contradicted because VOA reports 35 kilograms of hashish while the Daily Mirror reports 989 grams of hashish plus 35 kilograms listed separately as Ash, so no hashish weight is recorded.
Separately listed items called Mawa, Ash, Thule and Kush are not counted as cannabis because the sources list them apart from cannabis and hashish without establishing whether they are cannabis products or overlap with the 272-kilogram total.
The overall narcotics total of almost 440 kilograms combines cannabis with heroin and other drugs and is therefore not recorded as a cannabis figure.
The 1,097 people sent to rehabilitation are reported separately from the 13,666 arrested suspects, so no combined detained total is recorded to preserve the sources' distinction.
No charges, court appearances or outcomes for the 13,666 suspects were reported.
The incident date of 24 December 2023 is the end of the week-long operation and the announcement date, while the operation itself ran from 17 December.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Daily Mirror: Police, the Special Task Force and other security forces ran the island-wide Operation Yukthiya across all provinces from 17 December until 12.30 am on 24 December 2023.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Daily Mirror: Police also reported seizing 944,651 cannabis plants in the same week.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in Daily Mirror: The same operation also seized heroin, ice and narcotic pills alongside other separately listed drugs.
The BBC gives the week's seizure only as almost 440kg of various narcotics including heroin, without a separate cannabis weight, so it corroborates the overall haul but not the 272 kg cannabis figure.
The BBC names no operation, no officials and no individual suspects, and gives no charges or court outcomes.
The BBC page's only image is a Getty stock photo captioned 'Drug raids are not uncommon in Sri Lanka', not a picture of this week's raids, so none is added.
Galle District Crime Division officers arrested a 41-year-old Unawatuna resident in a local raid and recovered over 125 grams of Kush alongside crystal methamphetamine. Police said further investigations into the possession case were underway.
A man detained while taking part in the sit-in against the Anuradhapura Sacred City Development Plan, on a charge of obstructing police duties, has been found to have used both heroin and cannabis. Two civilians were arrested over the confrontation between police and Buddhist monks near the Ruwanweli Maha Seya stupa.
Airport Police Narcotics Bureau officers arrested a 37-year-old Indian businessman at Bandaranaike International Airport early on 7 November 2026 as he allegedly tried to smuggle kush and hashish out of Sri Lanka. They found 2.102 kg of kush in tins labelled as tamarind toffees and 5.26 kg of hashish shaped like toffees, which police valued at about Rs 231.42 million.
Police in Madiwela, Kotte, arrested a 25-year-old local resident in a night raid on 6 November 2026 and seized 558 grams of Kush, a cannabis product, along with heroin and crystal methamphetamine. The Western Province North Crime Division, which ran the raid on received information, said investigations were continuing.
