CHENNAI: In yet another bust of the narcotic methamphetamine, the Chennai zone of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized 2.7 kg of the drug worth Rs 27 crore from two people including a Sri Lankan national from Chennai.
Interestingly, a Manipur-Sri Lankan Tamil link has been established in this case as well, as the other accused arrested is a Tamilian from Moreh, Manipur, who is settled in Chennai now, official sources said.
According to NCB zonal director P Aravindhan, the agency’s sleuths intercepted two people Vijaykumar and Manivannan near the Moolakadai bus stand in North Chennai on October 22 and recovered 1.9 kg of methamphetamine, also known as Ice.
Vijaykumar is a Sri Lankan national who lived in the Kanyakumari refugee camp, an official release from NCB said. He had travelled to Chennai to take custody of the consignment to traffic it to Sri Lanka. Manivannan is a Tamilian originally from Moreh in Manipur, who now lives in Chennai. He had travelled from New Delhi recently by train to deliver the drug which is believed to be sourced from Myanmar and brought into India through the international border in Manipur, sources said.
After the initial interception, NCB conducted further searches which led to the discovery of 800 gm more of the drug at Manivannan’s residence. In a subsequent investigation, NCB also seized Rs 15 lakh in cash which is believed to be proceeds of the drug trade.
Both accused have been remanded to judicial custody and investigations are underway to identify further links in the drug trafficking network.
This is the fourth major seizure of methamphetamine by NCB this year; in July last week, 6.9 kg of the drug worth Rs 70 crore on its way to Sri Lanka was seized at the Kilambakkam bus stand south of Chennai and three were arrested. A few weeks before that, 4.2 kg of the drug was seized across two cases in Chennai; one of those arrested was Krishnakumari, the wife of Kasilingam, who is already in Puzhal prison after being arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in a meth case.
In August, DRI had seized 10.13 kg of the drug in Chennai, on its way to Sri Lanka through Rameswaram.