The Illegal Assets Investigation Division has confiscated a luxury restaurant worth more than Rs.150 million at Mt.Lavinia owned by Shiran Basik, a kingpin of the Dubai drug network.

It was reported that the property has been bought with money earned from drug smuggling.

The restaurant has been built on an illegally acquired plot of twenty-five perches land along the beach between Mt. Lavinia and Wellawatta.

This land has been bought under the name of another person in October last year, and the restaurant has been renovated after spending around Rs.50 million.

It was reported that the value of a perch in this area exceeds Rs.5 million.

The investigations have been carried out by the Illegal Assets Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) based on a complaint received by the Inspector General of Police Chandana Wickramaratne.

Accordingly, the information on properties including hotels worth millions of rupees belonging to Shiran Basik have been revealed.

His 20-year-old son has paid Rs.200,000 monthly to the person who pretended to be the owner of this restaurant.

Basik has been considered a godfather of large-scale drug trafficking in Sri Lanka for about 15 years and he has supplied drugs to other main drug traffickers including Harak Kata.

He has bought properties in other people's names for money laundering purposes.

Investigations are ongoing to locate other properties owned by the suspect who had gone to Dubai, UAE on a fake passport three years ago.

Source - Aruna