A total of 111,074 suspects have been arrested while 4,472 among them are under detention orders for questioning since the beginning of Operation ‘Yukthiya’ to date, Police Spokesperson DIG Nihal Thalduwa said yesterday (12).

Commenting on the police anti-organised crime drive  and its impact, DIG Thalduwa stated that 41 kilograms of heroin, 43 kilograms of Ice and 300,000 narcotic pills have been taken into custody thus far during the islandwide police operation.

Furthermore, the value of illegal assets seized during the operation is around Rs. 1,500 million, according to the Police.

Despite significant concern and criticism from local civil society and even from international sources, regarding the mass arrest tactics used by the Police during Operation Yukthiya, the Government and the Department of Public Security has been persistent in continuing the operation, which has put significant strain on the corrections system of the island. 

Since January, the corrections system of Sri Lanka, which was already overcrowded, saw an unprecedented number of suspects and inmates enter, only to be accommodated in already congested institutions.

The anti-drug operation was launched on 17 December 2023, on the instructions of Public Security Minister Tiran Alles and then newly appointed IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon, in a stated bid to eradicate drug trafficking, organised crime and other related offences across the country.