Sri Lanka police arrest 22 Buddhist monks after 110kg of cannabis found in luggage | Sri Lanka

22 Buddhist monks were detained by Sri Lankan police after customs officials found 110 kg of high-quality marijuana hidden in their luggage; this was the largest ever drug bust at Colombo’s main international airport.

The group, which consisted mostly of young monks studying at temples in Sri Lanka, allegedly “carried approximately five kilos of narcotics in their luggage, hidden within false walls,” according to a Sri Lankan customs spokesman.

The spokesman said the monks had a four-day holiday in Bangkok and when they returned to Bandaranaike airport on Saturday, they hid “kush”, a powerful form of marijuana, in their luggage. In video footage published on social media, monks at the airport can be seen hiding their faces with their robes.

The suspects were handed over to the police and appeared before a magistrate on Sunday.

It was the largest single incident of kush ever detected at the South Asian country’s main international airport, with transport worth 1.1bn rupees (£2.5m), according to officials.

Local Daily News reported He said the monks’ trip was sponsored and that there were photos on their phones of the group enjoying the holiday in their “professional clothes”.

The 23rd monk believed to have organized the trip was arrested in a suburb of Colombo, police told the BBC world service’s Sinhalese station. According to the statement of the police spokesman, the monk, who was not on the trip, told the other monks that “these packages are donations” and that a minibus would come to pick up the packages. reported.

A 21-year-old British woman was arrested with 46 kilos of drugs at the same airport in May last year. Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, said the drugs were placed in her luggage without her knowledge. He was also traveling from Bangkok to Colombo.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report