Between 1983 and 1985, several arms consignments on chartered tonnage met with various mishaps.

One - named in press reports as the Ivy B - ran around in Egypt, complete with her cargo of 2.5 tonnes of armaments. Another, named as the Palavan, was intercepted ex - Singapore in Madras, laden with Chinese weapons. As a result of such difficulties, the Tigers decided to become shipowners in their own right. Their first purchase was a 1966 built, 1,334 dwt general cargoship brought from Singapore, which traded as Cholan. Incidentally, in this period the group reportedly constructed its own vessel - no mean feat for a guerillas organization - on the Kerala coast.

The need to develop a merchant fleet became more pressing after a major diplomatic reversal, in the shape of the 1987 Indo-Lanka accord. Suddenly Colombo was back on side with New Delhi. Around 100,000 Indian troops were sent to Sri Lanka to wage war on the Tigers on their home turf. Although the state government of Tamil Nadu continued to offer succour to the rebels, the Tigers decided to establish facilities further afield, which necessitated greater shipping capability. Charged with heading this aspect of the Tigers' work was arms procurement chief Kumaran Padmanathan. This man has used over 20 aliases, but is best known as simply KP. His team is known as the KP Department. Through existing ties with the military regime in Myanmar, a permanent tigers naval base was established on the Myanmar island of Twante. That had to be vacated in January 1996, following diplomatic pressure on Rangoon from Colombo.

However, during the period the vessels are believed to have carried consignments of heroin for resale on the streets of the developed world. The colossal profits helped fund the Tiger war machine. Another regular - and more conventional - trade was hardwoods. It is now believed that a second Tiger shipping base has been set up on a Thai island near the holiday resort of Phuket. Press and intelligence sources have since named a number of vessels believed to have undertaken missions for the Tigers. Most are small general cargoships, registered in Panama, Honduras or Liberia owned by front companies. They spend the overwhelming majority of their time carrying commercial cargoes. The crews - usually VVT tamils - are paid for their work, unless they are Tiger cadres. By following ships' ownership histories, it is possible to identify a number of companies that have assisted the rebels efforts. It is also possible to build up a picture of some of the Tigers shipping operations.

A vessel of unknown type, variously named as either the Swanee or the Sweene, handled the Tigers' biggest known consignment yet in August 1994, loading 50 tons of TNT and 10 tons of explosive RDX at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Nikolayev. The consignement had been arranged by a Dhaka-based company, Carlton Trading set up by KP. An end-user certificate was ostensibly signed by Bangladesh's defence secretary, stating that the cargo was destined for Bengali forces. The Swanee arrived off the Sri Lankan coast in September, having called at Twante en route. It offloaded under the protection of Tiger speedboats. The RDX was used in a January 1996 truck bomb that devastated Colombo's financial center killing 91 and injuring over 1400. Indian and Sri Lankan naval patrols have cost the Tigers several vessels. These include the San Lorenzo registered Yahata, which left Phuket in January 1993, while under observation by an Indian submarine. On board was a senior Tiger commander, Krishnakumar Sathasivam, better known by the nom de guerre Kittu. In the Bay of Bengal, she was renamed Ahat by the painting over of the first name and last letters of her name. Around midnight on January 16, she was intercepted by the Indian navy some 20 km off Jaffna. Rather than surrender, Kittu and the other tigers on board ordered the crew to swim to safety. Then, with the help of the explosives on board they blew the vessel up.

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