Sri Lanka’s top drug lord Kanjipani Imran is in Tamil Nadu and its hardly surprising

The sea route has been the most preferred for the drug cartels operating in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. The proceeds from the drug trade are being used to fund terror and revive the defunct LTTE

New Delhi, Jan 03: Tamil Nadu has been placed under a state of very high alert after it was learnt that one of Sri Lanka's notorious drug lords, 'Kanjipani' alias Mohammed Imran had entered the country through coastal Rameswaram.

The development is worrying for the agencies as the number of drug smuggling are on the rise from Sri Lanka. All the recent cases have clearly suggested that the drug mafia in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu are being manned by the ISI in Pakistan. It has also come to light that the drugs are being sold and the proceeds of the same are being used to revive the LTTE in the state.

About Kanjipani:

Kanjipani Imran alias Mohammed Imran was released from a jail in Sri Lanka after he had obtained bail in a criminal case. He managed to give the agencies in Sri Lanka the dodge following which is said to entered Tamil Nadu reports said.

The Intelligence says that there are many pending cases against Imran which include murder and drug peddling. He managed to escape from Sri Lanka on Christmas eve. He is internationally connected and deals directly with the drug lords in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was recently arrested in Dubai following which he was deported to Sri Lanka.

Lack of effort:

Imran is a notorious character and it is not just his drug connections that are worrying. In fact the proceeds from his business directly are used to fund terror. When he was brought from Dubai to Sri Lanka, he was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He was accused of threatening a police officer.

Despite knowing the gravity of the situation and Sri Lanka facing incidents of terror on many occasions, the police rolled back the charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and applied new charges under the penal code. This gave his legal team the chance to seek bail which he was granted because the charges against him were weak.

At court, the Attorney General said that the charges of threatening a police man do not fall under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, following which the Chief Magistrate ordered his release while barring him from travelling abroad.

The agencies in both Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu were found to be lax in this case, especially when there is so much details about this man. He is said to be a close aide of Haji Salim, a member of the Pakistan drug mafia who was in close contact with the nine persons arrested by the National Investigation Agency in a drug case. An official tells OneIndia that the NIA case had made it clear that this is the same drug mafia which had been funding the revival of the LTTE at the behest of Pakistan's ISI.

This is also the same module which was part of a major operation. In this connection the Indian forces had intercepted a boat carrying 300 kilograms of heroin, five AK-47 machine guns and 1,000 rounds of 9 mm bullets.

The Rameswaram connection:

In November last year, the Tamil Nadu coastal police had arrested a DMK councillor and a former councillor of the same party for attempting to smuggle cocaine to the tune of Rs 360 crore from the Ramanathapuram district. The police said that former DMK councillor, Jainuddin and the current councillor of the 19th ward of Rameswaram, Sarbaz Nawaz had attempted to smuggle cocaine into Sri Lanka.

The official cited above said that this is not the time to be lax. Rameswaram has always known to be a hub for such activities and the fact that Imran had managed to slip into this place is hardly surprising as he has a deeply infested network there.

When the civil war in Tamil Nadu ended the number of drug smuggling cases shot up. The demand for cocaine remains high in India, while the Sri Lankans prefer heroin.

The drug cartels rely heavily on the fishermen to smuggle in these drugs. There have been scores of such persons arrested by the Indian coast guard and the drug link has cropped up in most cases.