The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested another accused in the LTTE revival conspiracy case involving illegal drugs and arms trade in Sri Lanka and India.
With the arrest of Lingam A alias Adi Lingam, a key conspirator in the case in Tamil Nadu, a total of 14 persons have so far landed in the NIA net in the Srilankan illegal drugs and arms trade case registered by the agency here in July 2022.
“A resident of Chennai, Lingam was a close associate of another accused, Gunasekharan, and acted as a benami for the latter’s illegal transactions relating to laundering the ‘proceeds of drugs and arms trade’ in India and Sri Lanka. Lingam had also forged ID documents for members of the racket in an attempt to legitimise their illegal stay in India,” the NIA said in a statement.
The agency alleged all the accused in the case were dealing actively in illegal drugs trade in India and Sri Lanka. “They were using the money earned from the drugs trade for funding acquisition and amassing of weapons for the revival of LTTE in the two countries,” it said.
NIA investigations have revealed that the illegal narcotics were sourced from one Haji Salim, an absconder suspected to be based in Pakistan.