Sri Lanka, Aug. 19 -- For decades, Sri Lanka sat at an agonisingly strategic crossroads in the Indian Ocean, acting as a vital maritime trade route and a fertile transit hub for international drug cartels.
The roots of this national crisis run remarkably deep into our history. During the long years of the LTTE conflict, northern coastal stretches like Velvettithurai, Point Pedro and Mannar were routinely exploited by contraband smuggling networks moving across the narrow waters of the Palk Strait. Over the decades that followed, those early illicit supply lines mutated into a highly organised, multi-million-dollar narcotics trade.
Major cartel figures operated with near-total impunity, directing street-level distribution in Colombo while...