Sri Lanka, Nov. 10 -- The crime syndicate is allegedly exploiting routes through southern India and Sri Lanka to rebuild its narcotics trade after crackdowns in western and northern India, Diya TV said.

For LTTE-linked elements, the arrangement offers a financial lifeline amid leadership gaps and funding shortages, Diya TV said. The LTTE was defeated militarily in Sri Lanka in 2009.

Officials quoted in the report said a wholesale revival of the LTTE's separatist insurgency remains unlikely, but cautioned that legacy logistics endure, Diya TV said.

The syndicate's capital and international reach, combined with the LTTE's coastal know-how along the Palk Strait, could ease movement of contraband into southern India and beyond, security so...