A total of 97.5 kilogram of powdered ephedrine, worth Rs five crore, was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence from a godown of a garment company situated off Tirupur-Erode highway on Monday late night.
The godown supervisor, Sreenivasan, was arrested under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
The DRI sources said that the arrest and seizure was based on information provided by the owner of the said exporting firm, Ramesh, and a custom house agent, Ramaraj, who were arrested a few hours prior to the incident at Kochi for possession of 31 kilogram of hashish.
DRI sources said that Ramesh and Ramaraj was caught while trying to export hashish along with a garment export consigment.
The interrogation of the accused, according to DRI sources, revealed the involvement of a foreign national who is the mastermind of this drugs smuggling racket.
"Preliminary investigations indicate that the foreigner has been using the accused to route the hashish and other banned drugs procured from countries like Nepal and Afghanistan to other countries along with garment consigments," DRI officials said.
