RAMANATHAPURAM: A drug smuggling attempt was foiled by sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Coast Guard as hash worth Rs 108 crore was seized and four people were apprehended on Tuesday.
Officials of the DRI’s Chennai Zone and the ICG heightened surveillance based on a tip-off that drugs were being smuggled to Sri Lanka near Mandapam.
On the intervening night of March 4 and 5, the DRI and ICG teams found a country boat sailing towards Sri Lanka and intercepted it. Upon inspection, they found five sacks of narcotics concealed inside. Three persons were apprehended and taken to the CG station at Mandapam.
After interrogation, the accused confessed that the sacks contained narcotics which they received from a person near the Pamban coast. They were carrying the narcotics to hand them over to some unknown persons from Sri Lanka at deep sea.
The DRI officials swung into action and apprehended the person, who supplied the narcotics to the trio, from his house. After a probe, the fourth accused revealed that he organised the narcotics smuggling ring to Sri Lanka via the sea.
The sacks contained 111 packets of hash, weighing a total of 99 kilos. Hash, which is made with ganja leaves, is a banned substance under the Narcotics Drug and Psychotropics Substance Act and is valued at `108 crore in the international market.