Port Authority auction: Police, Army end mafia control

*Raid on instructions of Defence Secretary

*Army, Police to provide security for future auctions

In a coordinated operation, the Police and the Army raided the Port Authority auction during the weekend and arrested four persons linked to the underworld while some others fled. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa on information that an organized underworld gang is controlling the auction had instructed the Security Forces and the Police to end this mafia control and ensure a secure environment for the auction.


Investigations have revealed that the underworld gang had been receiving the prices tendered for the goods to be auctioned from Port Authority sources.

Through intimidation the mafia had ensured that the goods will be bought by them at low prices. According to complaints made to the Police, anyone bidding over the prices bid by the members of the mafia had been either assaulted and chased away or threatened with death.

Having bought the goods quite cheap, the mafia had been selling them at a higher price at the Port itself.

The income from the weekend auction has been the highest in 20 years. On the instructions of the Defence Secretary the auction will be hereafter held under the protection of the Security Forces and the Police. Those taking part in the raid in the auction included a group of police personnel under DIG Anura Senanayake and SP K Ranaweera, a group of CID personnel headed by SP Senaka Kumarasinghe and a group of Army personnel headed by Brigadier Mahinda Weerasuriya.

The income denied to the Government by the intervention of the mafia is estimated to be several billions of rupees. (News-Daily News)