Chennai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed chargesheet against 13 people, including Sri Lankan nationals, in the India-Sri Lanka illegal drugs (sourced from Pakistan) and arms trade case relating to attempts to revive the banned LTTE in the two countries.

Three Indians were among those chargesheeted by the NIA and the rest were Sri Lankans.

An NIA release said the chargesheeted persons had conspired with the accused in the Vizhinjam arms case for exploiting the illegal drugs trade in India and Sri Lanka for funding, amassing and stashing weapons for the revival of LTTE in both the countries.

The drugs were sourced from one Haji Salim, who is suspected to be residing in Pakistan.

The accused had been using various foreign WhatsApp numbers to carry out the clandestine trade.

Investigations in the case had exposed their conspiracy to fund the LTTE revival through the drug trade. They were arrested at the Trichy Special Camp.

The probe also revealed that the accused were using the proceeds of the crime to live a lavish life.

Several mobile phones with pre-activated Indian SIM cards were seized from them apart from various digital devices, documents relating to the drug transactions, cash to the tune of Rs 80 lakh and nine gold bars during the course of the investigations, the NIA said.

The cash and gold were proceeds from the sale of narcotics and were being channelled through hawala networks between Chennai and Sri Lanka.

"Several transactions using Crypto platforms were also unearthed between the accused," it added.

The NIA had filed the case suo motu on July 8, 2022 and arrested 13 people.

The accused were chargesheeted under various Secs of the IPC, UPA(P) Act,1967 and NDPS included three Indians--Selvakumar, M.Vigneshwara Perumal alias Vicky and Iyappan Nandhu.

The remaining 10 were from Sri Lanka, identified as C.Gunasekaran alias  Guna, Pushparaj alias Pookutti Kanna, Mohammed Asmin, Alahapperumaga Sunil Ghamini Fonseka, Stanly Kennady Fernando, Dhanukka Roshan Ladiya alias Navin Chathuranga, Vella Suranga alias Gamage Suranga Pradeep, Thilpanalias Dileepan and Danaratthnam Nilukshan.

While Vicky and Nandu were arrested in April this year, the others were arrested in December last year.

(With UNI inputs)