Chennai, Aug 24 (IANS): The central agencies are on high alert after the arrest of Sri Lankan national Suresh Raj or Chinna Suresh and Soundararajan from Kochi and Chennai in the last week of July.

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) sleuths who are probing the seizure of five AK 47 rifles and Rs 3000 crore worth of drugs from a Sri Lanka boat off the Kerala coast on March 25, 2021, has found that the arrested were handled by a Pakistani national and that the two were involved in smuggling the drugs for garnering funds to the now-defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Suresh, according to NIA sleuths is a Sri Lankan national and has been staying illegally in India for the past several years without any Visa or Passport. He has a PAN card, Aadhaar Card, Driving license, voter ID card, and Indian passport. The NIA revealed that he had got all these using forged documents to prove his credentials.

The boat 'Rahivanshi' was intercepted off the Kerala coast by the Indian Coast guard on March 25, with Six Sri Lankan nationals on board. The boat had 300 kg of cocaine worth Rs 3,000 crore in international market, five AK 47 assault rifles, and 1000, 9 mm bullets. The boat was owned by a Sri Lankan national, Loku Yaddehige Nishantha, and NIA found that since the second half of 2020 the conspiracy to smuggle drugs and weapons from Pakistan using fishing boats has been going on.

According to Central intelligence agencies that are tracking the seizure and the arrest of the Sri Lankan nationals, the drugs, and weapons from Pakistan were headed towards Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and from there to other international destinations. Sources in the agencies told IANS that the drugs and weapons from Pakistan are being smuggled using networks in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for scouting funds to the operational activities of the now-defunct LTTE.

The arrested Suresh Raj and Soundararajan have told the investigating officers that the LTTE network is active in certain pockets of Tamil Nadu. After the arrest of the duo, the 'Q' branch of the Tamil Nadu police have conducted combing operations in several parts of the state and have taken into custody certain people. However, sources in the police said that no arrests have been recorded so far.