Sri Lanka police arrested 22 Buddhist monks after customs officials found 110kg of high-grade cannabis hidden in luggage at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport, in the biggest single seizure of kush at the main airport, authorities said. [1]
The monks had returned from a four-day holiday in Bangkok on Saturday when officers found the drugs concealed in false walls inside their bags. Customs said the cannabis was a potent strain known as kush and was valued at about 1.1 billion Sri Lankan rupees, or £2.5 million. [1]
Most of those arrested were junior monks in training from temples across Sri Lanka, officials said. A customs spokesperson said the luggage was found to carry “about five kilos of the narcotic concealed within false walls in their luggage.” [1]
Police also arrested a 23rd monk in a Colombo suburb. He was not on the trip and is believed to have organised it. Police said he told the others that “these parcels are a donation and that a van would come to collect the packages.” [1]
The monks were handed over to police and appeared before a magistrate on Sunday, a day after their arrest. [1]
The case comes a year after a 21-year-old British woman was arrested with 46kg of cannabis at the same airport in May 2025. She said the drugs had been planted in her luggage. [1]
