In a well-coordinated maritime operation, both on land and in the high seas, lasting over two weeks, the Sri Lanka Navy has arrested four human smuggling multi-day fishing trawlers, headings for the South Eastern deep waters carrying over 100 passengers.

The Sri Lanka Air Force too assisted the Navy in this coordinated effort.

This is considered a major break-through in the human smuggling operations in Sri Lanka.

The major human smuggling network would be probed into effectively and the human smuggling ring arrested, sources said.

The passengers said that they had paid large sums of money to the masterminds of the operation with the cooperation of other maritime terrorists and criminals to achieve their ulterior motives.

Sri Lanka Police also assisted the Navy to conduct the arrests.