Sri Lanka seizes $21m crystal meth shipment

US and Sri Lankan anti-narcotics agents seized 463 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from a shipping container in Colombo after a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said Wednesday.

Police deputy inspector-general Ashoka Dharmasena said two Pakistani men were arrested after the container arrived in Colombo over the weekend. He said a local man was also arrested in connection with the seizure.

The US embassy in Colombo said the narcotics were valued at $21 million, concealed in bath towels and meant to be smuggled to international markets via Sri Lanka.

The embassy said the US Drug Enforcement Administration's office and the Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau conducted the operation after tracking shipping containers from Pakistan between August 14 and 29.

Dharmasena said Sri Lanka's anti-narcotics drive since October had led to the seizure of nearly 14 tonnes of illegal drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine.

Sri Lanka's Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament that most illegal drugs entering the country originated in Afghanistan and Pakistan and were being smuggled in by sea. He said Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, had an estimated 400,000 drug users.