A team of CID officers has brought back the notorious drug dealers and criminal figures Nadun Chinthaka alias “Harak Kata” and Salindu Malshika Gunaratne alias “Kudu Salindu” to the island this morning (March 15).
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) dispatched a team to Madagascar earlier this week to repatriate Sri Lankan drug kingpin “Harak Kata” and his infamous accomplice “Kudu Salindu” who were arrested while on a visit to the Indian Ocean island off the southeastern coast of Africa.
After being extradited from Madagascar, the criminal duo was brought to India’s Mumbai International Airport and was supposed to be repatriated to Sri Lanka on Tuesday (March 14). The CID team was forced to defer the repatriation to today owing to a flight delay.
Escorted by the CID team and two defence officials from Madagascar, “Harak Kata” and “Kudu Salindu” arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) from Mumbai, at around 7.10 a.m. this morning.
They were later escorted to the CID headquarters in Colombo, under tight security, for onward investigations.
According to Ada Derana correspondent, security had been beefed up near the Katunayake airport ahead of the arrival of the notorious criminal duo.
On March 08, the defence officials in Madagascar officially informed the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka of the arrest of 08 suspects including “Harak Kata” and “Kudu Salindu.”
Foreign media reported that a Malagasy woman who claims to be his wife and her father were also among the suspects arrested in Madagascar on March 01.
L’Express, a leading media network in Madagascar, mentioned that the suspects had been taken into custody at the Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo, Madagascar, while trying to fly out of the country.
The arrests had been made in a joint operation conducted by the National Central Bureau (NCB) of the INTERPOL, Madagascar’s law enforcement authorities and Customs officials.
According to L’Express, five Sri Lankan suspects had landed in Nosy Be on a private jet on February 12. The group later travelled to Antananarivo on a domestic flight the following day.
After staying at two hotels in Ivato and Ambohimangakely, the suspects reached the airport in two luxury cars. The gendarmes (paramilitary police officers in France or French-speaking countries) had recognized and arrested them with the help of the red notices previously issued by the INTERPOL.
During his stay in Madagascar, “Harak Kata” had posed as a wealthy businessman while “Kudu Salindu” and the others pretended to be his bodyguards.
The two luxury cars and the mobile phones of the suspects were also seized by the Madagascar law-enforcement authorities. Further, a sum of Malagasy Ariary (MGA) 32 million found on the woman who claimed to be the wife of “Harak Kata” was also confiscated.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry had said necessary measures were taken through the Sri Lankan High Commission in Victoria, Seychelles to extradite the arrestees from Madagascar, as Sri Lanka does not have an embassy or a high commission there.
After being officially informed of the arrest of the suspects, a group of local law-enforcement authorities comprising an Assistant Superintendent of Police and an Inspector of Police attached to the CID departed for Madagascar, along with two Special Task Force personnel.
“Harak Kata” who operates his drug syndicate in Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, Seychelles, the Maldives and Madagascar was previously arrested at the Dubai International Airport in August 2022.
However, he had changed his name to Herath Dissanayakage Roshan Isanka in the passport which was found on him at the time of his arrest in Dubai. The Dubai Police had released “Harak Kata” on October 03, 2022, as they were unable to complete the legal matters pertaining to his deportation.
