Police say action has been taken against more than Rs 1.1 billion in property, houses, vehicles and cash allegedly acquired through crime. It sounds impressive. The real measure of success, however, will be how much is ultimately confiscated after due process – and whether taking the profits out of crime proves more effective than simply arresting its foot soldiers.
Sri Lanka Police say they have moved against more than Rs 1.1 billion worth of assets allegedly acquired through illegal activity, signalling an increasingly important shift in the fight against organised crime: instead of concentrating only on the people involved, investigators are beginning to follow their money.
Police Media Spokesman ASP F.U. Wootler said action had been taken in relation to assets valued at approximately Rs 1.104 billion. They include property and houses valued at Rs 978.9 million, vehicles worth approximately Rs 109 million and around Rs 14 million in cash.
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The figures are significant because the financial infrastructure surrounding organised crime can matter as much as the criminals themselves. A narcotics organisation which loses a courier can recruit another; an organisation which loses the houses, vehicles, bank balances and other assets into which its profits have been converted may be considerably harder to rebuild.
Recent cases demonstrate how the process works. Police announced on Friday that properties worth more than Rs 100 million, allegedly purchased using proceeds from narcotics trafficking, had been restrained following an investigation arising from the arrest of seven suspects transporting heroin in 2020. The properties include land and two-storey houses in Kadawatha and Kelaniya, with the Welisara Magistrate’s Court ordering their seizure for 14 days from September 10.
In a separate investigation announced earlier this week, Police froze two properties in Embilipitiya valued at more than Rs 130 million. Investigators allege that the properties, including two three-storey houses, were acquired from the proceeds of narcotics trafficking, with restraining orders again imposed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Those examples also illustrate an important distinction which can disappear in headline figures. Freezing, restraining and ultimately confiscating an asset are not necessarily the same thing. Property can be restrained while investigators establish its ownership and source of funding, but permanent forfeiture requires the State to satisfy the legal process applicable to the case.
That protection is necessary. The State should have powerful tools to strip criminals of the proceeds of crime, but it must also establish through evidence that the assets it seeks to confiscate are actually connected to unlawful activity. Property rights cannot depend simply upon an allegation by Police.
The more meaningful statistic will therefore come later: of the Rs 1.1 billion now identified or restrained, how much is eventually forfeited to the State after legal challenges have been exhausted? That number will provide a better measure of whether Sri Lanka is genuinely dismantling criminal wealth or merely temporarily immobilising it.
The same Police briefing revealed another indication of the scale of the organised-crime problem. Forty-three people subject to Interpol Red Notices have been returned to Sri Lanka since 2023, while another 38 wanted persons were reportedly brought back without Red Notices. Police say another 95 people against whom Red Notices have been issued remain overseas.
A Red Notice is an international request seeking the location and provisional arrest of a wanted person for prosecution or to serve a sentence; it is not itself a finding of guilt. Nevertheless, the presence of 95 Sri Lankan wanted persons abroad illustrates how far organised criminal networks have extended beyond the island.
Police also say the 1818 public hotline has received 7,071 complaints, providing information which has assisted investigations. That public cooperation matters, but the ultimate test of the campaign will be what happens after the raids, arrests and announcements have disappeared from the headlines.
Organised crime is ultimately a business. Its objective is money, and the houses, vehicles, land and cash are often the visible dividends of that business. If Sri Lanka wants to make organised crime less attractive, removing those dividends may prove at least as important as putting another suspect into a police vehicle.
Rs 1.1 billion is therefore an impressive beginning. The number NEWSLINE wants to see next is how much of it the State can legally and permanently take away.
