Sri Lankan multi-day fishing vessels continue to be the peddlers for drugs and narcotics to this island nation. The recent arrests, both in SL waters and in Maldivian waters yet again indicates the continuing nature of these drug trafficking businesses despite all arrests and confiscations so far. At same time, Sri Lankan, as islanders, seem to have no knowledge of the depth of this drug menace despite reacting to arrests.
The article is an attempt to bring the attention of all stakeholders; from the Government to the citizens an understanding of the issues of narcotics being smuggled in via the sea.
At present there are two primary sources of drug and narcotic trafficking across the seas; one is across the Palk Bay and Palk Strait (in the north of the country) from Tamil Nadu coastline in India which ferry so called ‘Kerala Cannabis.’ The other source is the heroin and synthetic drug (mainly methamphetamine, aka ‘Ice’) peddled across the high seas through the Sri Lankan multi-day trawlers.
These two routes have two quite different geographical environments. The Palk Bay & Palk Strait is a narrow semi-enclosed sea area where fibreglass dinghies (FGD) operated by Jaffna smuggling groups ferry the item delivered by Indian sources at or across the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and those who ferry these Kerala Cannabis do so as contracts for bigger dealers who operates from the peninsula. And these dealers are well connected with local politicians and communities, and for some in the northern societies it has been and still is a way of life.
This article is mainly focus on drug peddling in high seas involving Sri Lankan flag (flag State concerns applicable, in this case the Department of Fishery) vessels transporting drugs and narcotics for consumption of the local market and operated by elements based on Dubai (international dimension applicable) using transporters from yet another country or countries (regional concerns applicable).
The bigger financial benefits lay on the high-sea drugs and narcotic trafficking involving multi-day fishing vessels. These financial payments involve millions of Sri Lankan rupees and the complexities of the existing legal system, and the fishing vessel registrations are in favour of the ‘importers! Since 2015, Sri Lanka Navy has been intercepting and arresting the high-sea drug peddling ‘mother ships’; the Iranian dhows originating from Iran's Makran coastline and getting loaded with the drugs and narcotics in Pakistan waters. These motherships used to venture into the eastern half of the northern Indian ocean by crossing the Maldivian archipelagic waters to deliver the consignment ordered by Sri Lankan contacts and continue their passage to destinations such as Indonesia and Australia. However, with Sri Lanka Navy’s aggressive patrolling patterns in 2015 to 2019 have challenged and reduced these Iranian ‘motherships’ venturing into the eastern part of the northern Indian ocean as almost all Iranian vessels ferrying heroin and methamphetamine were intercepted and arrested.
These repeated arrests prompted the ‘motherships’ to change their pattern and mode of operation to the southern part of the Arabian Sea. As per this new arrangement, Iranian dhow will be making a rendezvous (RV) with designated Sri Lankan multi-day fishing vessel in Arabian sea and deliver the consignment for onward transfer to Sri Lanka. The multi-day fishing vessels are all registered and leave as per the laid down departure guidelines. They will not be arousing suspicion but the owner (or in some cases, the skipper) only will know the purpose and the assignment of the contract to peddle the drugs and narcotics. Sri Lanka Navy and Coast Guard repeatedly had engaged the owners in educating them and the fishing communities of the danger of their fishing vessels being used for drug peddling, but regrettably it seems that there always is a willing chap to undertake the risk for a hefty sum of money. The amount of money involved is high and even though the fishing vessels are confiscated for legal custody, it is not an issue for the dealers. The irony is that a number of Sri Lankan nationals are under custody as they are being charged under the prevailing legislature but not the ‘importers’ who ordered the items.
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The fishing vessels venture into the Arabian Sea through the shipping lanes in 8 Degree Channel (on the lines of Indian and Maldivian EEZ) and once in the Arabian Sea operate outside the Maldivian EEZ limits. The instructions to RV the ‘mothership’ come by a satellite phone call, making satellite phone onboard is a clear indicator of the drug peddling intentions. The fishing vessels operate their Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), as required by law and do not arouse suspicion by the monitoring agencies. Depending on the situation they may switch off their VMS when making the RV momentarily. The ‘mothership’ that is delivering the consignment does not even have Radar or any identification/monitoring system thereby staying blind from surveillance systems operating from the land. Once the consignment is received the fishing vessel is on its own and loiter in high seas engaged in fishing till, they get instructions on when to come ashore or closer to the Sri Lankan coastline to deliver the drugs to yet another pre-arranged delivery.
The latest arrest in Maldivian waters on 24 November, resembles something similar happening some years back when the Sri Lankan multi-day vessel issued a distress call citing no fuel at sea near India's southern tip. As the vessel was in Indian Search and Rescue Region, Indian Coast Guard promptly responded by detaching a vessel to the said location to assist as per the international obligations under the Convention of Safety of Life at Sea. The Indian Coast Guard boarded the fishing vessel and confirmed the vessel was out of diesel in the tank but Sri Lanka Navy intelligence, having checked the profile and record, indicated to the Indian Coast Guard that the vessel they helped was carrying drugs hence to undertake a strip search at the nearest port facility. Accordingly, the Indian Coast Guard towed the Sri Lankan vessel to the port and searched, only to recover drugs hidden in a concealed compartment within the fuel tank. It was this ‘half-tank’ status that triggered them to run out of fuel, and the Indian Coast Guard recovered five pistols among the drugs. These pistols or weapons of choice (mostly T56 or AK 47 rifles) come as a complimentary package when one orders a consignment of 200 Kgs of heroin or synthetic drugs.
Talk about marketing tactics. Whilst the heroin is made in Afghanistan the synthetic drugs are a cottage industry in Pakistan mostly in highly urban areas such as Karachi. The Afghan drugs make s its delivery all the way to southern tip of the African continent whilst their southeastern Asian sea routes are now disconnected due to repeated action by the Sri Lankan Navy. Having evaluated the changing scenario, Sri Lanka Navy stepped up their anti-drug patrolling to the southern part of the Arabian Sea as this now became a national interest for the island nation. Thus, a sea area which previously we thought is not our operational area has now become our operational area to have a continuous presence by way of OPV class ship deployment as the drugs keep coming to our shoreline and local consumption has not gone down either.
These developments compel the Navy, Department of Fishery, and the Attorney General Department to rethink of our interception and prosecution modalities as the last eight years of law enforcement has arguably failed to deter the Sri Lankan fishing vessel owners and operators from not venturing into the drug peddling. The credibility of Sri Lankan high sea fishery is at stake as all are collectively categorised as drug peddlers by the regional countries. By repeated arrests like these, the reputation of Sri Lankan regulators and prosecution is at stake as the regional countries discuss these at maritime security forums.
Some time back, when the Sri Lankan Navy sought the assistance of the Indian Navy and the Bahrain based Combined Maritime Force (CMF) to intercept these drug peddling motherships in Arabian Sea, both declined indicating lack of resources they had to depute to Sri Lanka’s request. This compelled SLN to operate on its own to meet national interests and became successful winning high praise from all partners.
The CMF supported the Navy with legal advice and best practices through their learning in drug busting in the Arabian gulf, horn of Africa and in Yemenis waters. They recommended us to destroy all drugs arrested at sea, at sea after recording and logging all evidence. And they suggested destroying the vessel too after securing the lives of the crew onboard the drug peddlers. And the author is of the view that it is time for Sri Lankan authorities to heed this advice and destroy the Sri Lankan Flag fishing vessel at sea as a deterrence for vessel owners to be more responsible in their ownership. This would make the drug dealers enhance the money offered to ferry drugs and narcotics, thereby making the complete process more expensive and non-worthy of money spent. This menace requires some out-of-the-box, bold action to safeguard our fishery and our island's credibility.
(The writer was the Chief of Staff and Chief Hydrographer of the Navy and the Joint Chief Hydrographer to the Government. He is an International Consultant for Undersea Cables for the United Nations)
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication