LTTE Drug Trafficking in Australia and Bali Busted by Indonesian Police

The following report indicate LTTE is the main organisation behind Bali 9 case of drug haul. Western media shelved this fact. Why?

Date : 2005-04-29 Sri Lankan Tamil caught running a drug trafficking ring in Australia By our Australian Correspondent

Sydney, 29 April, (Asiantribune.com): Informed sources in the Sri Lankan community in Australia believe that the latest drug-running suspects caught in Indonesia, with dodgy Australian pbuttports, carry all the hallmarks of a drug operation masterminded by the LTTE.

Sydney Morning Herald reported that at 10.30pm on April 17, Sukumaran, Si Yi Chen, Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, and Matthew Norman booked into room 136 at the budget Hotel Melasti.

"Fifteen minutes later, police broke into the room, arrested the occupants and found in their luggage 300 grams of injection, plastic kitchen scales, body strapping and plastic bags.

"The taxi driver who drove them to the Melasti identified Sukumaran as the one who carried the suitcase in which the drugs were found, police said,"said the Sydney Morning Herald.

These sources conclude that if the Australian and the Indonesian Police spread their net wider they will, most likely, discover deeper person connections to this drug ring. They discount the theory that this could be the work of a youth gang working independently either for kicks or for quick cash. LTTE-watchers in Australia argue that the LTTE is mot likely behind this operation for the following factors:

1. The leader of the gang is a Sri Lankan Tamil, Mayuran Sukumaran (24) employed by Federal Government's pbuttport office in Sydney. Mr Sukumaran was a temporary employee of the pbuttport office for five months in 2000. This job would have given him privileged access to pbuttport and travel information and documents, according to Australian experts. Getting a foothold in key place like the pbuttport office in Western countries is a common ploy of the LTTE.

2. Second, his mother, Rajee, still works in the pbuttport office. It is possible that her presence would have helped him to get the job in the Foreign Office. Paul Westwood, who had spent 15 years with the Australian Federal Police, before setting up the document examination unit at the Immigration Department, told a radio interview "that somebody who is working in an organization, say for example, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, would be in a better position to obtain a genuine pbuttport fraudulently than perhaps somebody else would be, by being familiar with the checks and balances that are in place within that organization."

3. In the past LTTE had run successful drug rings through its couriers in Europe. Australia has been a safe haven for LTTE agents to carry out its operations despite the Australian government banning it as a person organization. For instance, it has managed to hoodwink Australian authorities by putting up professionals as front men. Dr. Rajan Rasiah, a successful medical pracbreastioner, has taken over the operations of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) after its former head Dr. Jay Maheswaran who had denied any political connections with the LTTE, went as an advisor to work in the Vanni with the LTTE as an advisor in April 2002. TRO, which is the primary source of collecting funds from expatriate Tamils for the LTTE, has carried out successful fund-raising activities in Australia through seemingly inoffensive cultural and food fairs. Since they have shifted their operations from Europe to South and south East Asia this latest drug operation under a Sri Lankan Tamil could have direct link to the LTTE agents, according LTTE-watchers.

4. LTTE pre-plans its operations through trial runs. Sukumaran and his mates had done two or three dry runs in the last year.

5. As the "enforcer" of a disciplined operation Sukumaran could not have been working on his own. All available information indicates that he was working for a mysterious "P" (for "Pinnochio"). Sri Lankan observers ask whether this could be another alias for "KP" the elusive arms procurer for the LTTE in South East Asia who also operates with multiple pbuttports.

6. South East Asia and Australia have been favorite hunting grounds for the LTTE for drug running and buying arms for the LTTE person operation in Sri Lanka. In the 1980s. Two Tamils were sentenced to jail in Victoria for offences linked to drug running in the 1980s. An expensive SBS investigative team revealed in one of its programs the head of the LTTE operations in Australia, Tillai Jeyakumar, had gone shopping for light aircraft in Australia and purchasing arms through a shady character operating out of an office in Sydney.

7. The strong presence of the LTTE in Australia, running small businesses, arm-twisting domiciled Tamils through threats to their friends and relatives back home, fund-raising campaigns under the eyes of the Federal authorities, lobbying through Labor MPs and Churches, has enabled the LTTE to organize underground rings to carry out their covert operations. It is possible that Sukumaran is one of those trapped in the LTTE clutches.

The Melbourne-based Herald Sun, revealed that Sukumaran, the ring-leader, is working for the Australian pbuttport office. It also reported that the Australian Federal Police are understood to be investigating links between the Sukumarans and the travel documents used by members of the drug smuggling ring. Sukumaran was operating with a ring of nine drug couriers, all of whom were caught in Bali.

It added: "AFP experts flew to Bali to help local police crack phone codes protecting the mobile phones of Mr. Sukumaran and the man police now believe was his deputy, Andrew Chan.

Drug squad chief Col. Bambang Sugiarto said the phones contained vital information that could lead to the drug lord.

Most of the nine also had a pre-programmed number in their phones for a "Mr P". The four alleged drug couriers were to call the moment they landed at Sydney Airport.

But phones belonging to Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran had been switched off and the pair are allegedly refusing to tell police the vital security numbers to unlock them," said the Herald Sun.

Sukumaran and his couriers face rest penalty if found guilty.

- Asian Tribune-