CHENNAI: Two persons were arrested near Mannady for allegedly smuggling foreign cigarettes from a godown there. The police recovered more than 28,000 cigarettes from them.

The arrested were identified as Praveen (32) of Mannady and Abdul Raheem (40). On Tuesday night, Parveen and Abdul were loading boxes of foreign cigarettes in a vehicle when a police patrol officer intercepted them.

When questioned, they acted suspiciously. The policeman checked the boxes and found them to be foreign cigarettes. The duo was arrested and taken to Elephant Gate police station.

The police recovered 28,490 cigarettes worth nearly 15 lakhs from the suspects. Search is on to nab the owner of the godown, the police added. It may be noted that as many as 1,500 packs of e-cigarettes were seized from shops across the city for the first time in a combing operation by the city police on Sunday.