Five persons possessing 15 kg of ambergris (sperm whale vomit) worth several crore have been arrested by Tamil Nadu Police in the international market at Tindivanam in Villupuram district, on Thursday, March 10. Based on a tip-off, a police team, while conducting a patrol on Wednesday night, found the five and made arrests. The five people were seen coming out of a house, carrying a travel bag. Upon inspection, it was found that they had ambergris in their possession. Ambergris or sperm whale vomit fetches several crore in the international market. Police seized the material and arrested the five people.
The arrested persons have been identified as Mohanarangan, aged 62, Sathyamoorthy (34), Chandrashekhar (33), Murugan (32), and Lakshmipathi (32). When they were interrogated, they had told the police that they were scouting for potential buyers to sell the 15 kg of ambergris worth several crore rupees.
All of them were produced before a local court and were remanded to judicial custody. The police have also alerted the Villupuram Forest Department. Ambergris, according to Forest Department officials, is a solid, waxy substance from the intestine of the sperm whale and is found floating in the sea. It is used extensively in the perfume industry.
Ambergris means gray amber in French. It is also known as floating gold, which is a waxy substance that originates from the digestive system of the protected sperm whales. Ambergris is formed when a blockage is created in the digestive tract of the sperm whale due to the hard beaks of the squid which is the natural diet of sperm whales. Usually the ambergris floats up after the whale dies or it gets released naturally and keeps floating around in the ocean for decades, where it hardens and supposedly transforms and becomes valuable. However, poachers have been known to kill sperm whales hoping to find the ambergris. It is used in making costly perfumes and is expensive as it washes up to the shore rarely.