Police bust Air Cargo phone theft operation; 03 Global courier service workers arrested

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka Police busted an operation of stealing mobile phones sent to Sri Lanka by Air Cargo via a reputed courier service in the world.

Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana speaking to News 1st said a complaint was made to the Katunayake Airport Police by a Sri Lankan resident claiming that a mobile phone sent to him by a person residing overseas via air cargo had gone missing.

The tracking of the phone package revealed the item arrived in Sri Lanka, said the Police DIG adding investigations carried out by the Negombo Divisional Crimes Detective Bureau.

"Following investigations the DCDB Negombo recovered 16 iPhones from Kandy, Divulapitiya and Miniwangoda phone shops," said the Police Spokesperson adding from January to May a total of 19 mobile phones sent via air cargo had gone missing.

Three supervisors from the world famous courier service and three workers attached to a man-power agency that provides services to the courier service were arrested, said DIG Ajith Rohana.

Investigations revealed that the courier services workers are aware of the contents of the cargo arriving in Sri Lanka and inform the workers from the man-power agency.

Thereafter, the workers break the packages or crates at a location with zero CCTV coverage, and steal the mobile phones.

All six suspects were produced at the Negombo Court and were remanded to the 10th of May, said the Police Spokesperson adding mobile phones valued at Rs. 03 million were stolen by the suspect.

If anyone has a similar experience over a missing mobile phone sent from overseas via courier services Sri Lanka Police urged victims of this crimes to contact the DCB Negombo OIC on 071 402 4042.