A 54-year-old man, suspected to be supplying explosives to Maoists in Odisha, was held at his residence here in Virudhunagar district on Friday. Explosives were also seized from him.
A team of Organised Crime Intelligence Unit sleuths swooped down at his residence in NGO Colony in the early hours and nabbed him.
The police found him running a clandestine unit where he had illegally stocked several explosive materials including sulphur, aluminium powder, and a machine to make fuses among others, a police source said.
He was whisked away to the Sattur Town police station, where he is being interrogated.
The man, who is fluent in Hindi, claimed that he was an agent supplying crackers to north India.