By The Pulseline News Desk
Sri Lanka has arrested 586,824 individuals during 588,180 drug-related raids conducted over the past two years, as the Government intensifies its crackdown on narcotics, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala has told Parliament on Thursday (22).
The figures also reveal that nearly 12,000 of those arrested were below the age of 21, highlighting the involvement of young people in drug-related offences.
According to the Minister, 11,970 individuals under the age of 21 were arrested during the operations. They included 11,737 boys and 233 girls.
Of those arrested, 10,673 boys and 216 girls were between the ages of 18 and 21, while a further 1,064 boys and 14 girls below the age of 18 had also been taken into custody.
The figures indicate that the overwhelming majority of young suspects were aged between 18 and 21, although arrests among children below the age of 18 were also recorded.
Wijepala has also disclosed that the Government had frozen assets worth Rs. 10,040 million over the past two years, on the grounds that they were allegedly acquired through illegal means.
The asset-freezing measures form part of the broader efforts to target the financial resources linked to illicit activities, alongside law enforcement operations against drug-related offences. The Minister’s disclosure comes amid the Government’s intensified efforts to combat the drug trade through raids, arrests and action against suspected illicit wealth.
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