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.