Eleven red sanders smugglers, including the most-wanted international smuggler Arcot Bhai, were arrested by the police in Railway Kodur, Obulavaripalle and Chitvel mandals in Kadapa district on Tuesday.
Arcot Bhai is a hotelier turned most-wanted international smuggler.
He is accused in 19 cases, Attada Babujee, SP, told the media in Kadapa.
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Other smugglers arrested were: Pakala Chandramouli, Viswanathan, Adisekhar Reddy alias Mandarapu Babu, Vedi Saktivel, Talari Subbarayudu, Guntumadugu Dasaratha Raju, Muragiri Raman, Gangaraju Venkatarama Raju, Govindaraj Sandeep Kumar and Chinnakan Nagaraju.
Eighty five logs weighing 1,207 kg, a container, two lorries, three cars and two motorcycles, worth about ₹1 crore, were seized from them, he added. Arcot Bhai, 43, of Vellore in Tamil Nadu and Adisekhar Reddy, 33, of Obulavaripalle, were arrested from a car at the Surapurajupalli Crossroads in Railway Kodur mandal but Ethirajulu Srinivasulu absconded abandoning his BMW containing 17 logs, Mr. Babujee said.
On the confession of the duo, a lorry with 20 logs was seized and its driver Muragiri Raman, 33, of Arcot and Vedi Sakthivel, 40, of Salem in Tamil Nadu, accused in 11 cases, were arrested in the Madhavarampodu forest area near Billupatupalli village in the mandal.
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During vehicle checking, the Obulavaripalle Sub-Inspector and staff arrested smugglers Pakala Chandramouli, 30, and G. Venkatarama Raju, 47, both of Obulavaripalle mandal and seized a car with eight red sanders logs in it, the SP said. On their confession, a container lorry with 22 logs was seized and the driver Chinnakan Nagaraja, 40, of Arcot and Talari Subbarayudu of Chennarajupodu in Obulavaripalle, were arrested and a motorcycle was seized, he added.
Viswanathan of Thiruvannamalai, an accused in 19 cases, G. Sandeep Kumar, 30, both of Obulavaripalle and G. Dasaratha Raju, 37, of Vellore in Tamil Nadu were arrested in the forest area near Siddhareddipalle ST Colony in Chitvel mandal.
A lorry containing 18 red sanders logs and a motorcycle were seized. The others arrested were accused in six cases each, the SP said.
Team gets a pat
Mr. Babujee complimented Rajampet DSP Lakshminarayana, Circle Inspectors K. Sainath and S.D. Sivasankar Naik, Sub-Inspectors M. Bhakthavatsalam, B. Hema Kumar, Konda Reddy, Venkateswarlu, Haji Valli, Naik, B. Nagamurali, special party and civil constables for arresting the smugglers.