Chennai, Aug 2 (BPNS)
The Nagapattinam police had intercepted 300 kg of ganja on Monday and arrested six people in connection with this. The arrested were produced before the Magistrate court and remanded to judicial custody.
The arrested people had revealed that the ganja was procured from the borders of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and was to be ferried to Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu coastal police are probing into certain people with earlier antecedents of smuggling some materials to Sri Lanka from Nagapattinam coast which include rice and other provisions.
Sources in the central agencies told BPNS that the Nagapattinam and Rameswaram coastal belts of Tamil Nadu are still being used by certain Tamil national movements. The agencies and state police are probing whether this drug haul was a tip of the iceberg and that those behind this move are bent on pushing more stuff to the island nation through the sea route.
It may be recalled that in October 2021, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) acting on tips off from central agencies had nabbed Santukam alias Sabesan, a former top operative of the now-defunct LTTE.
Tamil Nadu CB-CID which had investigated the case found that Sabesan was connected with Sri Lankan don, Angoda Lokka who was later found dead in Coimbatore. Lokka was living in disguise in Coimbatore.
The arrested people had informed the police that they were trying to revive the LTTE and were using the drug network to raise funds for that.
The Coast Guard had intercepted 300 kg of heroin and 5 AK 47 assault rifles and 1000 pellets from a boat ,’Rahivansi’ near Minicoy island in Arabian Sea in March 2021. The drugs were valued at Rs 3000 crore and this was one of the highest drug haul in the area. Sabesan, according to investigating agencies was connected to this drug haul and was arrested in October 2021 following this.
Sources in Tamil Nadu Coastal police told BPNS that the 300 Kg of ganja haul from Nagapattinam may only be a trail run by the Tamil outfit and that there could be a major consignment to be smuggled into Sri Lanka.
The Coastal police and Coast Guard authorities are also on an alert and several fishing boat owners in Nagapattinam and Rameswaram areas are being kept under the radar of the elite ‘Q ‘ branch police of Tamil Nadu.
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