Loku Pati has an unofficial special task force.

A notorious underworld figure known as ‘Loku Pati’, linked to numerous serious crimes including the assassination of Chief Police Inspector Niyomal Rangajeewa, is reported by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to be building a new well-connected gang using former special forces soldiers who had deserted the military.

This information emerged from prolonged interrogations of a local thug from the Gampaha area, arrested on October 16 on charges of laundering over 330 million rupees obtained from the drug trade run by Lokupeti. Following these interrogations, a former special forces soldier who acted as a key player in Lokupeti’s drug distribution network has also been arrested by the CID.

The arrested ex-special forces soldier revealed during questioning that he feels trapped with no chance of escaping the criminal world and fears that Lokupeti would order his death if he tried to turn back. Despite providing a comfortable life for his wife and children, including international schooling for them, he lives in constant fear of being targeted at any moment. He also disclosed that he connected about fifteen other deserters from the military to Lokupeti’s network.

Lokupeti, an associate of the underworld figure ‘Madush of Makandura,’ was the prime suspect in a 2017 attack on officers of the Piliyandala Police Narcotics Bureau, which seriously wounded Chief Inspector Rangajeewa. The shooter, ‘Ami Asitha,’ was discovered to have been driven by Lokupeti on a motorcycle. After being released on bail, Lokupeti illegally fled the country and operated major drug trafficking and other crimes from countries such as India, Dubai, and Belarus. He was allegedly behind the July 8, 2024, murders of two persons including at Club Vasantha, directing the operation from abroad.

Lokupeti was apprehended in Belarus under an Interpol red notice and brought back to Sri Lanka on May 4, 2025. Currently, he is held in a high-security prison in Bussa, where the CID has confirmed that he continues to operate his drug network and criminal activities using a mobile phone inside the facility—an unusual and notable circumstance

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