News

$108 million worth of cocaine has been seized in Sri Lanka

Asia's biggest drug bust to date

Authorities in Sri Lanka have seized and destroyed the largest Asian cocaine shipment to date.

The 928kg of drugs, valued at $108 million, were seized in a timber container back in December at the Port of Colombo, before police destroyed it in a cement factory this week.

Reuters reports the shipment came from Colombia and was bound for India.

This crime is just one part of an escalating drug problem in Sri Lanka in recent years, one which has seen more than 1,700 kilos of substances seized over the past three years.

Other accounts include six seized shipments of cocaine from South America, one being cargo containing $140 million worth of high-quality coke sent from Brazil in sugar shipments.

Authorities reckon Sri Lanka is being used as a masking dock before continuing onto Australian and European markets.

Investigations into the tracking of networks and peddlers behind these shipments are ongoing.

[Photo: Dinuka Liyanawatte, Reuters]