Chennai, Feb 22 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Police were conducting searches and raids at several places in the state after the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested an Indonesian passenger at the Chennai international airport, who had arrived from Lavos via Singapore.

The passenger was arrested on Wednesday. Raids were conducted on tip-off from the arrested passenger, Ahmad Idris, who had smuggled 2,970 grams of cocaine worth Rs 27 crore.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu Police told IANS that certain pockets were under surveillance by the Central Intelligence Bureau and that the state police were also supporting in the present raids.

It may be noted that the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) members were trying to regroup and many of the former operatives of the movement are in various pockets of Tamil Nadu, including Sri Lankan refugee camps.

The former intelligence senior operative of the LTTE, Sabesan alias Satkunam was arrested in October 2021 in Chennai in a case related to the smuggling of 300 kg of drugs, five AK 47 assault rifles and 1000 rounds of ammunition which were secured near Vizhinjam seas in Thiruvananthapuram. Satkunam was a very senior intelligence operative of the LTTE and was in the inner circle of its founder leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran who was assassinated by the Sri Lankan Army.

The Tamil Nadu Police and DRI are, according to sources, acting on tip-offs from the Central agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

There were also reports that the banned LTTE was trying to amass wealth through smuggling of drugs and Tamil Nadu is a point of contact for these smuggling groups. A former official of a Central agency told IANS that former operatives of LTTE have a solid network with both drug and arm smuggling networks across the globe.