The Central Crime Branch busted an international red sanders smuggling racket and arrested 13 people. At a press conference on Saturday, they announced recovery of 4,000 kg of Red Sanders worth ₹3.3 crore. The gang allegedly sourced red sanders from neighbouring States and illegally exported consignments to Malaysia, China and Vietnam by air and sea.
Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime), who headed the operation, said that the kingpin, Abdul Rasheed, 48, hails from Puttur and had evaded the police by communicating with his associates on instant messaging apps.
They had a network of contacts in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra to source red sanders. Private couriers would smuggle consignments into Bengaluru where they were stored in godowns in Dodda Nagamangala for packaging.
“The consignments were couriered to Chennai and Mumbai via private transporters and the exported to countries in South Asia where there is a huge demand for red sanders,” said the CCB.
On Friday, the police arrested M.S. Basha at Vinayaka Nagar while he was waiting for a private van to load red sanders weighing 500 kg. “Based on information provided by him, we raided a godown at Dodda Nagamangala and seized another 3,500 kg of red sanders, which was ready to be dispatched,” Alok Kumar said.
According to officials, Basha named Rasheed as the kingpin. A separate team was sent to Puttur where he was arrested.
Earlier, Rasheed was involved in a fake currency note racket in 2009 and also smuggling red sanders. He is wanted by the police of many States.
The other members of the gang were arrested at the godown. One member Mubarak, 26, is employed in a travel agency. He allegedly helped dispatch consignments to Chennai and Mumbai.
The police arrested three other accused from other places.
“A few days before the raid, they had successfully couriered two consignments to Chennai and Mumbai. Efforts are on to get back the consignments with the help of our counterparts in the two cities,” Alok Kumar said.
