‘Dematagoda Ruwan’ remanded; luxury vehicles purchased with drug money seized

The brother of the notorious criminal figure on death row ‘Dematagoda Chaminda’ who was arrested over his involvement in drug dealing has been remanded until November 05.

Ruwan Chamila Prasanna alias ‘Dematagoda Ruwan’ was taken into custody yesterday (October 29) by the Illegal Assets and Property Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The suspect was produced before Colombo Additional Magistrate Lochani Abeywickrama earlier today (October 30).

During the court proceedings, the CID officers told the court four luxury vehicles valued over Rs. 180 million and 1.5kg of gold that ‘Dematagoda Ruwan’ had purchased with the money earned through drug dealing were seized yesterday.

Reportedly, the suspect was in possession of a Range Rover worth Rs. 700,000 and a Prado SUV of Rs. 300,000 and two brand new BMW cars worth Rs. 330,000 and Rs. 480,000.

The investigating officers added that the suspect had smuggled in close to 1,000 kilograms of narcotics into the country from India since 2011, across the international maritime border and that he had distributed the contraband in the areas of Mattakkuliya and Dematagoda areas.

It was also revealed that the suspect owns a nightclub located in Dematagoda. Probes uncovered that ‘Dematagoda Ruwan’ had forged documents to indicate the profit yielded from his nightclub business for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 as Rs. 5 million, although the audit reports showed that the profit was only Rs. 500,000, the investigating officers further told the court.

The defence attorney, in the meantime, alleged that the CID is conducting a partial investigation based on a request of a certain politician and a businessman.

(Source: Ada Derana)