The concealment of red sanders pieces in reels of copper wiring to make them pass off as electrical goods is just one of the methods smugglers have used in carrying out their racket.
The Andhra Pradesh police who discovered a warehouse in Bengaluru where red sanders wood was being packed into copper reels say several more methods of concealment have come to their notice.
Red sanders sleuths have so far detected the contraband buried in sand, tucked into rice bags, hidden amid household articles and submerged in water and milk transported by tankers. There have also been instances of small chips being dropped into the petrol tanks of four- and two-wheelers.
On Monday, an armed party of the Kadapa police swooped on a godown at Katikanahalli in Bengaluru, run by a Chinese national Fian Wu Qinsan, where ruler-length strips of red sanders were stuffed into reels of copper wiring by two courier service employees. The modus operandi was to cut up red sanders wood into thin strips and cleverly insert them into wooden reels.
Another method is to cut the wood into thin chips and stuffing them into cable piping.
The readied goods are packed into plywood boxes with courier company labels, this easing the passage through police checkpoints.
