Chennai: Three persons were arrested and huge quantity of maava was seized at Arunagiri Street, Royapettah yesterday.
Maava is a mix of processed tobacco, betel nut or areca nut and lime which is banned by the State government.
According to the police, based on a tip off, they searched the premises at Arunagiri Street and seized 18 bags of raw materials used to prepare Maava, apart from 450 small packets of the banned tobacco product. Police also confiscated a two-wheeler from the spot.
In connection with this, Bhoopathy (56) and Baba (42) who live in the locality and one Srinivasan from Triplicane were arrested. They were said to be tobacco peddlers.
Police said that the tobacco was procured from Mannadi and brought to Ice House for packaging. It was being sold at various places in the city.