Making anti-drug drive truly successful

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake disclosed recently that over 70 individuals who directed Sri Lanka’s underworld operations from abroad have repatriated. Many of the individuals have been named as high profile criminal gang members by the Police.

Repatriating those with criminal links has been an ongoing process for some years but this gained momentum in the past two years since the NPP took over the police. The President has vowed there would be no let-up  in the Government’s fight against the illicit drug trade, to which almost all the gang members repatriated so far are linked.

It is almost a year since the Government launched the initiative to eradicate narcotics, titled “United as a Nation – National Drive”, which aims to eliminate the drug menace and trafficking in illicit drugs.

But is the Government’s anti-drug drive yielding any results or it is like its “Clean Sri Lanka” program which looks good on paper but hasn’t yielded any meaningful  and visible results?

Last week there was a terrible  tragedy when two children aged 11 and 17 were killed following a hand grenade attack on a house at Kawdana, Dehiwala. The attack was blamed on gang rivalry,  but police  and the culprits carrying out the attack had targeted the wrong house, killing the children. That is little comfort when young lives are cut short in this cruel manner.

Up to September this year, there were 34 shooting incidents linked to suspected underworld activity across the island, leaving more than 20  people dead. All the shooting incidents/killings have been put down to gang rivalry by the Police. This is a very convenient way of washing its hands of crimes by labelling them as “gang related” and doesn’t help build public confidence.

All the killings, some using sophisticated automatic weapons and now the latest being grenade attacks, are while the police claim that most of the wanted criminals are either dead or are in custody. But this has made little difference to the bold nature of the crimes that are being carried out or the large column of drugs behind detection on a daily basis. 

All the repatriated criminals are being held in detention  in different locations but there has been delays in framing charges against them and prosecuting them. Some are being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which itself is problematic.

Take the case against Nadun Chinthaka Wickramaratne alias  ‘Harak Kata’ who is being held under the PTA despite the High Court ruling that he cannot be held under the PTA as the charges filed against him so far are over a conspiracy to escape from custody. The Attorney General has challenged the dismissal and has appealed against the HC Order.

In the case of the other criminals who were repatriated too, the conclusion of the investigations are likely years away given the volume of work involved which is why the Government is proceeding to introduce a special law to deal with organised crime and allow for such suspects to be held under long detention periods.

There is little doubt that the growing drug menace in the country needs to be arrested and the Government plans to do so. But what the public are mostly being treated to is a media circus around suspects who are showcased  before cameras and then whisked away. But on the ground the illicit drug trade seems to be continuing unabated and gun related violence showing little signs of slowing  down.

This raises the questions about how effective the Government’s anti-drug drive is? Is it turning into something that can be parroted out at public rallies while there are no results on the ground? That’s the question that many are asking now.