A 42-year-old Indian national was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake, on Monday night, by the Police Narcotic Bureau personnel, for having multiple visas and passports.

Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana said that the suspect had arrived from Chennai on a SriLankan air bus around 7.30 p.m. The PNB officials had found 16 passports with Italian visas, three Indian Passports and a passport with an Australian visa, he added.

SP Rohana told The Island that the visas could have been fakes and the racketeer would have been engaging in a human smuggling racket. Whether the suspect was a constant traveller and a human smuggler who had been operating for a long time had not been established yet, he said.

The suspect would be interrogated on the large number of visas by the PNB after obtaining a detention order from the Negombo Magistrate`s Court SP Rohana said.

The suspect was from Tamil Nadu.