Chennai, Jan 19 (IANS): The Greater Chennai Police have commenced operation to detect and prevent drug smuggling in the city and surrounding areas after arrest of a man who used to sell ganja-laced chocolates.

On Wednesday, the police have arrested Surendra Yadav, who used to sell ganja-laced chocolates to even children from his shop in Triplicane and recovered seven kg contraband from his shop.

After Yadav's arrest, the police formed several teams and commenced a crackdown on the ganja and other drug peddlers in the city.

There has been in an increase in the usage of drugs in Chennai city and this has led to the arrest and counselling of those who have been using the drug.

A senior officer of the Chennai police told IANS that highly-toxic synthetic drugs are in circulation in Chennai and the police is trying to unearth the source of these drugs. The arrest of peddlers is only the tip of the iceberg and the real culprits are sitting somewhere else and managing the show in Chennai city.

The source of most of the synthetic drugs like MDMA is reaching Chennai from states as far as West Bengal and Bihar. However, with the arrest of the peddlers, most of these drug seizures are forgotten leading to new peddlers arriving at the market.

The special police teams have arrested a few drug peddlers and are questioning them to ascertain the source of these drugs. While there are reports of the former operatives of LTTE being involved in the smuggling of these drugs, after the arrest of Satkunam alias Sabesan, a former top intelligence operative of the LTTE, police said that the former LTTE operatives were not directly involved in drug smuggling.