Delayed suitcase arrives on a separate flight
The man, a carpenter, returned to the airport that afternoon to collect the missing bag, according to police accounts reported by Daily Mirror. Officers from the Airport Police Narcotics Bureau arrested him after intelligence reached the Inspector General of Police.
Police traced his journey from Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia to Dubai on October 26, followed by a flight to Sri Lanka on Flydubai FZ-579. His suitcase had not been loaded onto the Sri Lanka-bound flight and reached Katunayake on a later flight.
The Airport Police Narcotics Bureau is continuing its investigation.
Customs reported a separate seizure days earlier
Days before the November 1 arrest, Sri Lanka Customs reported finding cocaine and ecstasy in another passenger's luggage at the same airport. Daily FT reported that officers from its Narcotics Control Unit arrested a 46-year-old Indian national on October 28, 2026, after his arrival from Paris via Doha on Qatar Airways flight QR 654.
The drugs had a combined estimated street value of Rs. 454 million. The seizure comprised about 5,121 grams of cocaine valued at Rs. 256 million and 13,173 grams of ecstasy, or roughly 23,000 tablets, valued at Rs. 198 million. It was described as Sri Lanka's largest-ever pill seizure.
Drug trafficking and legal context
Sri Lanka's role in the cocaine trade is primarily one of transit, according to its Global Organized Crime Index 2025 profile. The profile describes shipments originating in South America, often passing through Africa, and reaching Sri Lanka by sea or air. Common methods include concealment in food consignments and transport by air couriers.
High prices keep the domestic cocaine market limited, the profile says, while Sri Lanka serves as a transshipment point for India and other destinations.
At a January 22, 2026, media briefing, Sri Lanka Police Media Spokesperson ASP F.U. Woodler said drug seizures in 2025 were the highest in recent history. News.lk, the Government Information Department's news site, reported that authorities seized more than 23,692 kilograms of heroin, cannabis, cocaine, hashish and ice that year, nearly twice the amount seized in 2024.
A UNAFEI Resource Material Series paper on illicit drugs and the treatment of offenders in Sri Lanka describes the penalties under the country's Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. Manufacturing cocaine carries the death penalty or life imprisonment, as does trafficking, possessing, importing or exporting at least 2 grams of cocaine. The paper notes that Sri Lankan courts have interpreted the death penalty as non-mandatory.
