Feb 26, Colombo: Magistrate Chanima Wijayabandara issued a seven-day detention order allowing further interrogation of the two soldiers who were arrested yesterday while transporting heroin worth over Rs. 450 million in a luxury van belonging to the Army.

The police obtained detention orders for Lance Corporal Jayasena Vithanage Pradeep Dilshan Jayasena, a resident of Gahaliyagoda, Wehada, Midigama, Ahangama, who had deserted from the Army about two months ago while on duty at the Maradana Camp, and a 43-year-old Army driver attached to the Aththidiya Army Camp.

The Panadura Police Special Investigation Unit arrested the two Army personnel with 45 kilograms of heroin during a search operation in the Horana area yesterday.

Preliminary police investigations have revealed that the two suspects had been transporting narcotics belonged to Nadun Chinthaka alias Harak Kata, an organized criminal in the Southern Province and a large scale drug trafficker hiding in Dubai from Imaduwa to Midigama.