Two individuals, who were transporting a total of 168,000 sticks of smuggled foreign-made cigarettes that were brought into the country without paying necessary duties, have been arrested in Oluthuduwai, Mannar.
An Indian national, who aided and abetted the incident, has also been arrested and brought to the Mannar Police Station.
Acting on a tip-off received by a team of officers from the Mannar Unit of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB), a raid was conducted yesterday (21).
The two suspects, aged 22 and 67, are residents of Mannar and Colombo 14, respectively, while the Indian national, aged 53, is a resident of Chennai.
Mannar Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.
