Two Pettah based wholesale merchants were arrested by the Customs yesterday and handed over to the Police Narcotic Bureau in connection with the smuggling of heroin worth Rs 15 million, hidden in plastic containers, that looked like potatoes.

The consignment of narcotics was in a container which had 30,000 kilos of potatoes packed in bags. The Customs detected the contraband in several of the bags.

After investigation Customs officials traced the two wholesale merchants who were to purchase the consignment.

Further investigations revealed that the two suspects had imported potatoes on seven earlier occasions and it is suspected that they would have resorted to the same ruse.

The ship on which the contraband arrived is a container carrier based in Karachi.