Cardamom smugglers nabbed

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Three men arriving from Chennai were arrested by customs officials yesterday at the Bandaranaike International Airport while trying to smuggle 225 kilograms of cardamom into the country.

The market value of 225 kilograms of cardamom is around Rs. 1,125,000. One kilogram of cardamom is sold between Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000, said Sri Lanka Customs Assistant Superintendent Lal Silva.

Cardamom is a restricted import item under the Plant Quarantine Authority Act of 1996.

Airport Customs Superintendent C Perinpanayagam said they detected packets of cardamom from passenger baggages belonging to the suspects at the airport.

They were hidden between the garments inside the baggages, he said.

The items were detained and forfeited. The suspects were released, he said.