Ukkadam police on Sunday seized chewable tobacco product worth Rs. 3 lakh from five persons, who attempted to smuggle the same to Kerala.
The police have arrested the five.
The police said that following a tip-off that there was an attempt to smuggle the tobacco using a sport utility vehicle from L.N. Street in Ukkadam, a team led by Sub Inspector P. Jawahar Kumar, Special Sub Inspector Karunamoorthy and Constable Mubarak Ali went around L.N. Street and after keeping a watch, intercepted a vehicle with Coimbatore registration.
The five were sitting in a suspicious manner inside the vehicle.
Vehicle
The police team asked them to get out of the vehicle, made preliminary enquiries and searched the vehicle, to find the chewable tobacco packed in 25 bags.
In all, there were around 10,000 packets of the banned material.
The police said that after finding the tobacco there, the team seized it and took into custody Shahul Hameed, Mohammed, Jubi, Jaleel and Sunny. The vehicle was Sunny’s.
Jaleel was behind the wheel. Hameed and Mohammed were from Coimbatore and the other three from Thrissur, Kerala.
Destination
While the accused did not reveal the place where they had bought the banned tobacco product or the place where they were supposed to deliver the consignment, the police said that they suspected that it could be headed for Kerala.
The police said that they had registered a case and were taking the five to a magistrate court in Coimbatore to send them to judicial remand.
