Red sanders worth 80 lakh seized; 19 smugglers held

Nellore: Red Sanders Task Force teams conducted simultaneous raids in Kaluvoya, Sitaramapuram, and Dakkili mandals and arrested 19 smugglers on Friday.

TP Vithaleswar, OSD of crimes department, interacting with the mediapersons on Friday, said that they had conducted raids in three mandals and apprehended 19 inter-State smugglers, two of them belonging to Tamil Nadu and recovered 772 kg of red sanders logs worth Rs 80 lakh. They also recovered one truck, one motorcycle, 12 axes, one scooty and 6 mobile phones from them.

Among the accused, two were from Ponneri in Tamil Nadu and five from Prakasam district, he said. Rest of the accused belonged to Rapu, Dakkili, and Venkatagiri areas.

Explaining the modus operandi of red sanders smuggling, the senior officer said that the Tamil Nadu smugglers purchase red sander logs from local smugglers of Veligonda area and shift them to godowns in Chennai. They book containers and again transport the red sanders to other parts of globe based on their contacts.

Vithaleswar said when they tried to arrest the smugglers in all the three places, they attacked the police personnel with axes, sticks, and pelted stones on the teams. At some places they tried to hit the police jeeps with heavy vehicles. He said they had formed three teams to nab the rest of the members of the smuggling gangs in the forest areas.

As part of controlling the smuggling activity strictly and also to take legal action against the habitual offenders, the DSP said that they would hereafter be attaching their properties.

He said they had prepared list of smugglers across the district for keeping a continuous vigil on their movements. They had booked 32 cases till now and 180 smugglers were arrested in various cases besides seizing assets used for smuggling activity.