Red sander smugglers who were hitherto active in Chittoor, Kadapa and Nellore districts appear to have spread their network to Vijayawada. Smugglers, with international links, are reportedly using the city as a transit point.
The lack of coordination between forest, police, vigilance and transport authorities, coupled with poor vigil, is said to have come in handy for the smugglers who are transporting red sanders from Chittoor to Krishna district via Nellore, from where the precious wood is reportedly being transported to various destinations.
Red sander smuggling operations is new to the city and senior officials attribute the development to lack of proper vigil on private transport operators, which they say is giving a free hand to the smugglers.
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A few months ago, the forest, police and commercial tax officials intercepted illegal transportation of red sanders at Auto Nagar and Enikepadu areas twice. But, the investigators failed to take a serious note of this.
Police suspect that the smugglers, who took warehouse on lease at New Auto Nagar from owner J. Narayana Rao, planned to move the precious wood from Vijayawada to various destinations. The investigators are raising eyebrows as to how the red sanders were shifted, evading the check-posts on the highway .
Following the detection of the major dump, City Police Commissioner A.B. Venkateswara Rao ordered an inquiry into the illegal transportation of red sanders into the city. “We suspect that the smugglers brought the labourers from Nellore or Chittoor district for loading and unloading the logs at the godown to avoid suspicion to the locals,” said a police official.
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District Forest Officer S. Rajashekar said they would register a case and take up investigation, once the police returned the seized logs. Meanwhile, Chittoor Task Force police, who carried out a joint operation on Monday, shifted the accused and the seized material to Puthalapattu for further investigation.