Arrested four persons, including two Sri Lankans for attempting to smuggle communication equipment and medicine to Sri Lanka.

Q Branch of the state police on Friday arrested four persons, including two Sri Lankans for attempting to smuggle communication equipment and medicine to Sri Lanka. The officials suspect that the consignment was meant for LTTE.Based on intelligence input, the Q Branch team intercepted Sayanthan, a native of Sri Lanka, Jayanathan, a Sri Lankan with British citizenship, Babu, a native of Ramanathapuram, and Guhan, a native of Cuddalore, from Thiruvanmiyur. Q Branch officials also recovered 25 satellite phones, one GPS equipment, one night vision equipment and one walkie-talkie from the gang.Q Branch sources told The Times Of India that the consignment was kept ready to be smuggled to Sri Lanka. However, the route and the details of the procurement are still under investigation.None of the arrested persons have a known record of LTTE activism, sources said. The LTTE procurement modules have been lying low for the last few months, following regular interception by the Q Branch. Except for stray attempts, there were no big scale organised smuggling happening between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu during these months.However, of late there were signs of these modules becoming active again as smuggling cases of narcotics, communication equipment and essential materials were detected off the Tamil Nadu coast. Most of these smuggling activities were restricted to areas in and around Ramanathapuram, where the procurement modules have a well-knit system in place. Chennai remained largely out of the picture in the later part of 2008, except for the arrest of the smuggling kingpin Thambi Anna alias Daniel, who controlled and co-ordinated most of the consignments for LTTE, from the city in July last year.However, the procurement agents resurfaced in the city this year. On January 1, the Q Branch arrested a Sri Lankan national and recovered two Switzerland made satellite phones from him. The phones were meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka. On January 24, Chennai customs officials arrested another Sri Lankan with heroin at Chennai airport.In 2008, there were around 50 smuggling cases busted by the Q Branch and nearly as many Sri Lankans were arrested. The LTTE procurement modules had tried to smuggle everything from army fatigues, raw materials to explosives and provisions. The Q Branch had managed to break into the network of these procurement modules and with a better intelligence network in place, could intercept most of the smuggling consignments. The arrest of key figures like Thambi Anna was seen a significant event in controlling the smuggling between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.