Sri Lankan police arrested 22 Buddhist monks arriving at an airport after finding 248 pounds of marijuana products in their luggage.
The South Asian country’s police force said in a release Sunday that the monks arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport from the Thai capital of Bangkok on Saturday.
The police said they had information beforehand that “a group posing as monks would be transporting illegal drugs” and set up the sting with customs personnel for when the friars landed.
The 22 clerics, all Sri Lankans ages 20 to 30, are accused of bringing in 23.8 pounds of hashish, a concentrated form of cannabis resin, and 224.3 pounds of marijuana. The Sri Lanka Police did not name any of the suspects.
A Sri Lanka Customs spokesperson said each monk is accused of carrying 11 pounds of drugs within false walls in their luggage, according to Agence France-Presse.
The monks were returning from a four-day vacation to Thailand. The police told the BBC that they also arrested a 23rd monk, who is accused of organizing the trip.
The police told the BBC that the other 22 monks were possibly unaware of what they were doing.
The incident was the largest marijuana bust in the history of Bandaranaike International Airport. The drugs seized would be worth $3.4 million on the street, police said, according to the New York Post.
