Customs department officials seized 150 kilos of marijuana near the Nagapattinam port on Monday from a ship allegedly owned by a popular Tamil vlogger.
Following a tip that drugs were being smuggled into Sri Lanka, customs officials had carried out an intensive search in the port of Nagapattinam, Keechankuppam, Akkaraipettai, and other surrounding coastal areas on Monday night.
At Nagapattinam port, officials noticed a group of people loading bags onto a boat. When the officers reached the boat, the group fled the scene, leaving the goods and other vehicles.
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Speaking to Indianexpress.com, Nagapattinam Coastal Security Group Superintendent K Gunasekeran said the boat used to transport the contraband belonged to fisherman Gunaseelan (26), a popular vlogger who runs the YouTube channel, ‘ Nagai Meenavan ‘.
“The defendant is on the run. The customs department has seized about 10 bags containing about 15 kg of Ganja in each of them. Four motorcycles have also been seized. He had used his fiber boat to transport these contraband under the pretext of having a YouTube channel, ”he said.
Customs officials are keeping an eye on the rest of the drug smuggling suspects. The exact value of the seized drug has not yet been determined.
The YouTube channel ‘Nagai Meenavan’ has 687K subscribers. Gunaseelan used to regularly upload videos about different varieties of fish that he used to catch and sometimes even cook on his boat.
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