CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency on Thursday arrested one more suspect in the LTTE revival conspiracy case involving illegal drugs and arms trade in Sri Lanka and India.

 The arrested was identified as Lingam alias Adi Lingam, a key conspirator in the case in Tamil Nadu. With this arrest a total of 14 persons have been so far arrested by NIA in the Srilankan illegal drugs & arms trade case registered 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, according to NIA investigations.

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, said NIA.

The agency's investigations have revealed that the illegal narcotics were sourced from one Haji Salim, an absconder believed to be based in Pakistan.