An assortment of suspected narcotic related material including a Cannabis plant was seized from the Galle Face protest during a police clean-up operation after the protesters had decamped from the area, a senior official said yesterday. The material included needles, empty syringes and capsules, medicine cards used by drug dependants to inject themselves with various narcotic substances, he said.
He said one person was also arrested by the Fort Police along with a Cannabis (Ganja) cigar during the operation.
However, it is also possible that the material seized could also have been used by volunteer medical personnel that had pitched up camp at the site, the official said.
“We were aware that several undesirables had infiltrated the protest camp including drug addicts and other criminals since it served as a perfect cover for their activities.
However, we were forced to ignore them owing to the prevailing tense situation at the protest site.
Raiding the protest camp would have triggered-off a major public outcry, an adverse reaction from human rights activists and possibly even a reaction from the international community,” he said.
The protesters who occupied the Galle Face Green on April 9, demanding a ‘system change’ folded up their camp earlier this week following assurances from the authorities.