Sleep Walking

Illegal drug flows into Sri Lanka, as a transit point and as a destination, is on the rise, says the international drug watchdog.







Illegal drug flows into Sri Lanka, as a transit point and as a destination, is on the rise, says the international drug watchdog. "The flow of heroin from Afghanistan, the world’s largest illicit opium producer and heroin manufacturer, towards South Asian countries continues to increase," said the International Narcotics Control Board’s (INCB) 2004 report.

According to the INCB, drug availability and drug abuse in South Asian countries is increasing because of close proximity to major opiate production areas and also because of domestic cultivation of drugs.

Sri Lanka is slap in the middle of this illicit drug flow because the island is on the international heroin trafficking routes.

In India, opium is processed into heroin in clandestine laboratories.

This is generally a low-quality heroin base known as “brown sugar” that is sold in the illicit market in India or smuggled into Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Drug traffickers use the international airports at Mumbai, New Delhi, Trivand