llegal items enter prisons due to loopholes at entry points - Defence Secretary

Colombo (News 1st); Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said the Police Special Task Force (STF) was deployed in outer perimeters of the Welikada Prison and Colombo Remand Prison to strengthen security from Monday (Aug 24).

He said the decision was taken, especially to provide more protection to these prisons, to thwart illegal activities - smuggling drugs and using mobile phones to operate crimes from prison cells, reported the Defence Ministry website.

Maj. Gen. Gunaratne said prison guards had detected drugs, SIM cards and mobile phones from Welikada Prison, which is Sri Lanka’s largest prison which includes the Magazine Prison, Welikada Prison, Prison Hospital and Remand Prison, daily.

Defence Secretary said the smugglers kept on operating illegal activities amidst tight security inside these prisons and it was found later that those illegal items enter into prisons as there were some loopholes at prisons entry points, said the Defence Ministry.

"This was revealed when we adopted the new system that integrated all related intelligence apparatus including prison's intelligence unit, to work together to find the loopholes in prisons", he said according to the Defence Ministry website.

He said STF was already deployed to maintain security in the Agunakolapalessa Prison.

According to the Defence Secretary, all gates of the Welikada Prison would be manned by the STF soldiers to prevent drugs, SIM cards and other illegal items entering the prison.

Maj. Gen. Gunaratne, addressing a gathering at the 25th Anniversary of the Sri Lanka Army’s 53 Division said prison's officials were empowered more to conduct investigations inside prisons with the support of the STF.

While reiterating President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's directives to eliminate drug menace, organized crimes and extortions, the Defence Secretary said no one would be able to walk freely in the country if this situation continued for about four-five years, said the Defence Ministry.

“Sri Lanka would have been facing a similar situation like in Somalia”, he said according to the report on the website.