Is the container truck loaded with red sanders that was seized by the Two Town police late on Wednesday night the tip of the iceberg of a smuggling racket? Could be, says Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) M. Srinivasulu.
Four days ago, a similar kind of container loaded with red sanders was seized by sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and moved to Hyderabad, under the nose of the local police. That consignment had a Mumbai connection. The DRI’s operation had been kept under wraps so far.
Sources said going by the two incidents, Visakhapatnam could have been a major transit point and it might have gone unnoticed so far. The estimated value of the cargo that was seized by the Two Town police was between Rs. 3.5 crore and Rs 5 crore. The DCP said that as per the preliminary investigation, the cargo was loaded in a warehouse in Gudur, but the destination was not confirmed. While both drivers fled the scene, a cleaner of the container truck Subrahmanya Govindrajulu and a local transport operator M. Siva Reddy were taken into custody. According to the DCP, the arrested persons revealed that the container truck was booked by some person in Nellore and K. Venkateswara Rao of Vijayawada had instructed Siva Reddy to tranship the cargo from the container to his lorry that was stationed in Visakhapatnam.
The container was supposed to be shipped to China from the Visakhapatnam port, but plans were changed at the last minute due to DRI seizing a container. It was then decided to tranship the cargo into a lorry and move it to the Kolkata port. The police registered a case and have despatched teams to Vijayawada, Nellore and Gudur.
