TIRUCHY: Tiruchy forest officials arrested five persons who had attempted to sell ambergris weighing around 19 kg on Wednesday evening.

Based on a tip-off that a gang had been possessing a huge quantity of ambergris, a team of forest officials conducted a raid at a hotel in Periya Milaguparai in Tiruchy City and seized 19.200 kg of ambergris worth Rs 38 crore and arrested five persons who were identified as P Karthik (36) from Vadipatti in Madurai, A Vadivelan (42) from the same area, V Shanmugapriyan (38) from Kovilpatti and S Kumar from Tenkasi and they were produced before the court and later, they were lodged in the Central prison, Tiruchy.

According to forest officials, selling of ambergris is prohibited in India as per the Wild Life Protection Act.

They also said that ambergris is sold between Rs 1.50 crore and 2 crore per kg in the Indian market.