ED searches five Chennai and Madurai premises over Sri Lanka drug syndicate
India's Enforcement Directorate searched five premises in Chennai and Madurai in a money laundering probe into a syndicate accused of sending hashish and methamphetamine to Sri Lanka by sea. The case rests on two 2024 DRI seizures, including 99 kg of hashish valued at about Rs 108 crore from a boat in the Gulf of Mannar.
The Enforcement Directorate searched five premises in Chennai and Madurai on
Tuesday as part of a money laundering investigation into a drug syndicate that
moved narcotics to Sri Lanka by sea.[1]
The agency opened the money laundering case on the basis of two criminal
complaints filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence against John Britto
and others under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the
Customs Act.[1]The agency called Britto the alleged mastermind of the
syndicate and a habitual offender with contacts in Sri Lanka, and said he
recruited fishermen and boat owners to carry narcotics to Sri Lankan contacts in
the open sea.[1]In the first case, the DRI seized99 kg of hashish, valued at
about Rs 108 crore, from a fishing boat in the deep-sea Gulf of Mannar on 5
March 2024, acting on Indian Coast Guard inputs, and arrested Ramish, Jansan and
Prathap for moving the drug on Britto’s orders.[1]In the second case,
Britto’s associate Phillomen Prakash was arrested at Madurai Railway Station on
1 March 2024 carrying 37.645 kg of methamphetamine, known as ICE, which the
agency valued at about Rs 150 crore and said was meant for Sri Lanka.[1]
The agency said it had seized incriminating documents tied to a wider regional
network and was investigating hawala routes used to pay middlemen and
traffickers.[1]DT Next reported that Britto remains absconding and is
believed to be in a Gulf country.[2]DT Next also reported that, in the second
case, the DRI recovered a further 7 kg of methamphetamine from the Kodungaiyur
dump yard in Chennai, where Prakash’s family had tried to dispose of the
package.[2]ANI reported that the searches were carried out by the agency’s
Chennai Zonal Office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
DT Nextdtnext.inED raids in Chennai, Madurai in Sri Lanka-linked drug syndicate case
ANIaninews.inED raids five locations in Tamil Nadu in Rs 250 crore drug smuggling case
Open questions the AI reported
The articles do not say whether the searches produced arrests, fresh seizures or detentions of the people whose premises were searched.
The hashish and methamphetamine seizures took place in March 2024; the report treats the 26 May 2026 searches as the incident and keeps the seizures as the underlying case.
No cannabis weight, plant count or area belongs to the searches themselves, so only the DRI's 2024 hashish consignment is recorded, and it is not counted as a fresh 2026 seizure.
The Rs 108 crore is the agency's estimate of the hashish's market value, and the combined drugs figure of more than Rs 258 crore mixes it with Rs 150 crore of methamphetamine, which is not a cannabis value.
The accounts spell the first arrested fisherman's name as Ramish (The New Indian Express, BusinessLine) and Ramesh (DT Next), and the mastermind's associate as Phillomen Prakash and P Prakash, without reconciling the spellings.
Sources give the methamphetamine weight as 37.645 kg (The New Indian Express, ANI) or 37.64 kg (BusinessLine), and DT Next reports the seizure in two parts, 30 kg at the station and 7 kg from the Kodungaiyur dump yard, which the others do not.
The articles give no hearing date, court proceeding or outcome in the 2024 DRI cases, and do not say whether Britto has been arrested.
The Enforcement Directorate's own statement on the searches could not be opened to confirm the figures.
The text gives a weight ("99 kg") but the figures have no kg_seized; check whether it belongs there.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in The Hindu BusinessLine: The BusinessLine account, by PTI, reported the searches at multiple locations and gave the methamphetamine weight as 37.64 kg.
Left out activity, as its quotation was not found in The Hindu BusinessLine.
Left out agency types, as its only supporting source is not cited by the report's text.
Left out case stage, as its only supporting source is not cited by the report's text.
Left out products, as its only supporting source is not cited by the report's text.
Left out setting, as its only supporting source is not cited by the report's text.
Chopda Rural police raided forest land at Khanayapadaw on 11 November 2026 and seized 1,870 kg of ganja-like plants police valued at Rs 4.67 crore. The accused cultivator fled and no arrest was reported; samples were kept for chemical testing.
Kalyanpura police in Jhabua district, Madhya Pradesh, raided a field where cannabis was grown among a pigeon pea crop in Kheda village and seized 105 green plants weighing 82.55 kg. Police arrested the farm's owner and valued the plants at 784,000 rupees, though the case details sit behind the outlet's app login.
Arrested 1Charged 1Plants destroyed 105Cannabis 82.55 kg
Udaynagar police uprooted more than 30 cannabis plants weighing 65 kg from a pigeon pea field at Kavtiapani village in Dewas district, Madhya Pradesh, after a drone survey. Police valued the plants at about Rs 2 lakh and registered an NDPS Act case against the field's owner, Poonam Mujalde.
Gattu police searched a field at the edge of Boyalagudem village in Jogulamba Gadwal district, Telangana, on Saturday 7 November 2026 and seized four cannabis plants said to be growing there. The plants were in a field belonging to Govindu, a farmer from Lingapuram village, who was taken into custody, questioned and named in a case, Gattu sub-inspector Kalyan Kumar said.
