Four excise officers have been taken into custody in connection with a shooting that took place in Bambalapitiya yesterday afternoon (07), police said.
The four men in a van fired several shots at a car, after which both vehicles fled the area.
Tipped off about the incident, Bambalapitiya police erected roadblocks and checked vehicles.
The van was seized at Wellawatte, which had been carrying excise officers in civilian clothing.
Under interrogation, they have told the police that they were on a drug raid and that they had fired at the car by which the traffickers attempted to escape
They also claimed they had planned to carry out a bogus buying of drugs to nab the traffickers, but police had found no money with them.
The other vehicle, a car, too, was found abandoned in Wellawatte.
Meanwhile, additional excise commissioner general Kapila Kumarasinghe confirmed a team from his department had been on a drug raid in Bambalapitiya.
They had used a decoy and managed to arrest one suspect, but the others tried to flee in their vehicle, when it was shot at, Kumarasinghe said.
