COIMBATORE: The Tirupur rural police on Thursday arrested four men and seized nearly 3.5 tonne of banned tobacco products, worth Rs 22 lakh, from them.
The arrested have been identified as S Aravindraj, 24, of Palladam, P Muthukrishnan, 35 of Tirupur, C Saji Prasath, 43 of Coimbatore and J Vaikundaraman, 38 of Palladam.
The accused smuggled the products from Karnataka and stored them in a godown at Mangalam near Palladam.
Mangalam police inspector K Neeladevi got a tip-off that banned tobacco products were illegally stored in a godown located in a private land.
The inspector and her team visited the godown at 3.45am on Thursday and conducted a surprise raid. They found various brands of banned tobacco products.
The police seized the tobacco products, a car, two cargo autorickshaws.
Superintendent of police Disha Mittal said the arrested men were first time offenders.
They were booked under Section 273 (sale of noxious food or drink) of the Indian Penal Code and a few sections of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). They were remanded in judicial custody.