• Says soldiers have developed connections with underworld due to economic hardships and drug addiction

Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Sampath Thuyacontha

The Defence Ministry is to take measures to identify and arrest military personnel who are in the active service and having links to underworld criminal groups.

Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) Sampath Thuyacontha said that according to intelligence information, they have found that there were some soldiers who were having connections to underworld criminals.

“They have mainly developed those connections due to economic hardships and drug addiction,” he revealed at a special media conference held to brief measures taken to tighten national security and also to nab underworld criminals.

He agreed that there was a tendency of armed forces personnel with weapons training to desert the Tri-Forces to get into criminal activities and to join underworld criminal gangs. Air Vice Marshal Thuyacontha said that an order had been issued to arrest such individuals and both the military and the Police were capable of tracking down and apprehending such military deserters with weapons training within a short period.