At Palakkad, a truckload of pan masala valued at Rs 2.5 crore was confiscated.

Two people were detained on Sunday at Cherpulassery in this city for bringing a truckload of illegal pan masala valued more than Rs 2.5 crore.

Muhammad Harif, a native of Karuvarakund, and Muhammed Haneef, a native of Karakurissi, were detained. The pair had claimed, before the inspection, that they were delivering maida from Mysuru to Thiruvananthapuram.

On the other hand, 781 maida sacs with at least 5 lakh packets of pan masala were found by the Cherpulassery Police.

The contacts the accused had with neighbourhood traders have been discovered, according to Cheruplassery police inspector T Sasikumar, using phone records and WhatsApp conversations.

‘We believe that they had previously transported the prohibited materials at least once. We will look into the contacts the accused had in the state as well as the origin of the products’ Sasikumar added.