Four persons possessing 18.1 kilogram of ambergris (sperm whale vomit) worth at least Rs 31 crore have been nabbed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) near Thoothukudi sea coast of Tamil Nadu, on Friday, May 20. The four persons have been identified as Eswaran, Anil, Anandaraj and Bethane.
According to The Hindu, DRI sleuths had received a tip-off about smugglers of ambergris, following which they were patrolling along the Thoothukudi coast. Upon spotting four persons who were roaming in Thermal Nagar beach, suspicious officers questioned them and seized their bags, and found 18.1 kilograms of ambergris in the bag. They seized the material and arrested the four persons.
"We are grilling the accused to know about their other gang members. We have recovered a few incriminating documents from them," a source in the DRI said on Friday, May 19. All four will be produced before a competent court later in the day.
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 very rarely.
(With IANS inputs)