Chennai, Feb 7 - A Male-bound passenger, who had swallowed 99 capsules of heroin, has been caught by the customs officials at the airport here.

Ponnusamy Lakshmanan, who was about to board the Srilankan Airlines flight to Male Monday, was questioned by the Air Intelligence Unit personnel as he was moving in a suspicious manner, C Rajan, Commissioner of Customs, said in a statement.

Lakshmanan could not explain the reason for his frequent trips to Maldives and on persistent questioning admitted that he had volunteered to swallow 375 grams of "some narcotic" substance in capsule form.

He secreted all the 99 capsules in a 24-hour period. The content was sent for testing and was detected as heroin.

The passenger was being interrogated and action would be taken against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and Customs Act, Rajan said.

This is the second such attempt to smuggle heroin to Male. In October 2005, a Male-bound passenger was caught with 100 swallowed capsules. - Newkerala.com