European report details LTTE/Tamil militant drug smuggling
[13 Mar 2000]

A police intelligence document has revealed detections of narcotics smuggling, which include members of the People's Liberation Organisaton of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), LTTE sympathizers and members of other Tamil militant groups has for the time lent some evidence to prove the Tigers are involved in a drug smuggling ring.

The intelligence document was prepared over a period of nearly ten years with details of detections made at European cities which include Rome, Paris, London & Canada.

A consistent flow of drug smuggling has involved hardcore members of the LTTE as well as LTTE sympathizers and other Tamil & Muslim individuals nabbed for carrying narcotics over the last decade an a half.

The LTTE is believed to have lured some Sri Lankan underworld gangs to maintain a good relationship with Tigers for buying illicit drugs from the LTTE at comparatively lower prices.

The report said that illicit drug contingents are smuggled to Sri Lanka via India, Pakistan and Thuthukudi Harbour at Tamil Nadu.

One Tamil businessman and a member of a former Tamil militant group gave an inside account of the Tiger drug smuggling activities. According to the businessman, the Tigers maintain excellent relationships with drug Mafia groups in the Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and Cyprus. The businessman alleged that there are three Tamil Tiger groups which consist of about 25 members of the LTTE who function in these three countries and have a good understanding with the illicit drug barons.

Police Headquarters crime buster, H.M.G.B. Kottakadeniya said that the LTTE has kept their operations and drug deals hidden from the international community for fear that this could bring them into disrepute and tarnish their image, and lead to a possible ban on their activities in Western countries.

Kottakadeniya said that revenues earned by the LTTE through the narcotics trade has helped finance their arms smuggling.

Suspicions of LTTE drug smuggling arose after the number of detections surfaced in parts of India. A Sri Lankan Tamil, a former member of the LTTE was killed two months ago this year in New Delhi in a gang war shoot-out. Delhi police had then arrested, Nelson Anthony alias Ashwin Naik, a Sri Lankan Tamil. Anthony then confessed to Indian police that after leaving the LTTE, both he and his murdered comrade travelled to Tamil Nadu from which point they began a smuggling business together with some Delhi businessmen.

According to police reports, LTTE cadres are not directly involved in drug smuggling activities. The LTTE uses sympathizers and other hardcore drug barons to maintain a steady flow of cash to the Tiger coffers, the reports said.

The international advisor to the LTTE V. Manoharan was also nabbed for smuggling illicit drugs into Paris in 1986. Manoharan has served a term in French custody together with seven other Sri Lankan Tamils and a Muslim on this drug charge.

A former Tamil militant had also revealed that the LTTE collect a minimum of Rs. 10 million per month from smuggling illicit drugs and gold. Kumaran Pathamanathan, International Coordinator for the LTTE, based in London but with relatively free access to all other European ports is believed to coordinate the smuggling activities of the LTTE both for illicit drugs and gold.

The intelligence document also gives a detail account of evidence of Sri Lankan Tamil militants arrested for drug trafficking abroad in countries like Brussels, Rome, France, India and Britain.

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