Yesterday (3), Minister of Public Security Ananda Wijepala revealed that police investigations have uncovered a factory producing Crystal Methamphetamine (ICE) in Nuwara Eliya. According to him, organised crime suspect Mandinu Padmasiri, alias ‘Kehelbaddara Padme,’ had invested over Rs. 4 million in the operation, which was run out of a rented house. Over 2,000 kg of chemicals were reportedly imported for the purpose of producing the drug in Sri Lanka, reports said. Long-held suspicions about domestic manufacture of synthetic narcotics have come true with the findings. According to the newly appointed Inspector General of Police (IGP), a stock of nearly 1,416 kg of Crystal Methamphetamine (‘Ice’) has been seized by law enforcement up to date this year.

Over the last two decades, global watch dogs and UN agencies were concerned about the growing number of discoveries of clandestine methamphetamine-related laboratories in South Asia, which they thought pointed to countries in the region being increasingly being used as locations of illicit Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS) manufacture. The region had witnessed all types of ATS manufacture, ranging from small-scale kitchen laboratories to large-scale manufacturing facilities. Illicit laboratories have also engaged in extracting precursors for ATS from pharmaceutical preparations containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. New techniques for the illicit chemical syntheses were being experimented with to evade regulatory and law enforcement efforts.

In a 2010 report, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has raised suspicions about Sri Lanka’s vulnerability to be used as a country where methamphetamines could be manufactured by criminal elements. UNODC’s UNODC Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) programme highlighted that risk of increasing use of ATS is the greatest in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka appear to be targeted by transnational organised criminal groups involved in the illicit manufacture of ATS activities. “Sri Lanka's recent history of drug use has consisted primarily of cannabis and opiates, with infrequent reports of the use of cocaine and ecstasy by a few non-nationals and affluent locals. However, recent events related to the manufacture and trafficking of methamphetamine suggest the possibility that ATS supply and demand could emerge in the country. Isolated instances of illicit methamphetamine manufacture and trafficking underscore the need for increasing the awareness of law enforcement agencies about this important issue. Sri Lanka is also a transit point for drug trafficking as traffickers act as couriers of drugs from Pakistan and India to Europe and the West through Colombo and Malé,” the UNODC warned in 2010.

Sri Lanka is not alone in facing this crisis, according to the UNODC, the first quarter of 2024 saw a marked increase in drug trafficking incidents across South Asia compared to late 2023, with major seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants pointing to evolving trafficking patterns. Methamphetamine seizures in the region – particularly in Bangladesh and India – surged from 7.2 tonnes in 2013 to 20.4 tonnes in 2022. Local law enforcement and the Sri Lanka Navy has highlighted that Sri Lanka is increasingly receiving bigger stocks of ICE. The next logical step for organised crime would be to cut the middleman out, reduce the risk of trafficking and related interceptions and ‘cook’ the product domestically. In March this year, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) stated that in South Asia: “Seizures of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine and fentanyl, may soon outpace those of traditional plant-based narcotics, signaling a shift in the global drug trade. Synthetic substances are not only more potent and addictive but also easier to manufacture and traffic, making them a growing threat.”

Sri Lanka is a trans-shipment hub, and our neighbors are India and Pakistan, both of which have well grown chemical industries which work in export volumes. Our neighborhood also has an abundant source of experts in the field of Chemistry. As such, Sri Lanka has location, connectivity, a neighborhood where it can source chemical precursors needed to manufacture crystal methamphetamine. The stars have aligned for organised crime; they have everything they need to invest in an industry which is highly lucrative and has a high profit margin. Luckily for organised crime groups, they don’t have to navigate Sri Lanka’s complex and lethargic bureaucracy and regulatory framework to get this type of Foreign Direct Investment (be it for the black economy) into the country. With corruption and bribery, especially in law enforcement and the public sector rife, one can expect such investments and operations would be relatively easy to get off the ground.

Now that the threat has arrived on our shores and established itself, Sri Lankans can expect that others will try to replicate local manufacturing of ICE, or that there are already others established (yet to be exposed). It seems that the Government’s Clean Sri Lanka initiative will be tested well in dealing with this situation. Sound policies, reforms, funding, capacity building, networking and robust intelligence will be needed to effectively combat such national security challenges in the long term.