Colombo, April 3

Sri Lanka has detained 14 foreigners after seizing 110 kg heroin worth $7.5 million from an Iranian fishing trawler in the country’s biggest drug bust for nearly three years, police said Sunday.

Ten Iranians, two Pakistanis, one Indian and one Singaporean were remanded to custody after appearing in a magistrate’s court in Colombo today, national police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said. “They have involved Sri Lankans in this smuggling,” Gunasekera said. “We are hopeful of arresting them (Sri Lankans) very soon.”

Acting on a tip-off, police and the navy boarded the trawler off the south coast on Wednesday. They arrested the crew — the 10 Iranians and one of the Pakistanis — after discovering the 110 kg heroin that authorities estimate was worth $7.5 million.

“A Singapore national and an Indian were (also) arrested following a car chase on yesterday,” he said, adding that the other Pakistani was detained at a house in Sri Lanka that was allegedly used as a base for drug-smuggling.

The seizure is the biggest since August 2013 when police found 260 kg heroin hidden in a shipping container that had come from Pakistan.

Sri Lankan authorities have said that such large quantities of heroin suggest that Colombo is being used as a transit centre. Narcotics could be reshipped to the far-east, according to authorities.