In a major haul, the Kadapa police on Tuesday night busted a red sanders smuggling gang, with the arrest of two kingpins and their 30 aides who were allegedly involved in transporting the precious logs to foreign countries.
The police also seized four tonnes of high-grade red sanders logs, 16 grams of gold and five vehicles purportedly used in the smuggling operation.
Recently, Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations) M. Deva Prasad deputed special teams across the district to check the smuggling operations.
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A team led by Deputy Superintendents of Police G. Sivabhaskar Reddy (Rajampet) and N. Vijaykumar (Mydukur) arrested the kingpins, identified as Shaik Khaleel Khan and Arfaz Khan, near Kanumalopalle in Siddavatam limits, which led to the arrest of thirty more local persons who were allegedly helping the duo in the smuggling operations.
Both the kingpins are natives of Katigenahalli in Bengaluru Rural district in Karnataka, which is known to be a hot spot for red sanders smuggling.
Of the thirty arrested from across Kadapa district, nine were picked up along with a chunk of the logs from Siddavatam in Vontimitta police limits, six each in Nandalur, Pullampet and Railway Kodur police limits and three in Mydukur limits.
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Modus operandi
“All these locals were allegedly helping the Katigenahalli batch comprising Khaleel Khan, Arfaz Khan, Fayaz Khan and Nasrulla Khan by arranging transportation of the precious logs out of the forest. The logs were allegedly being sent to foreign countries via Chennai or Mumbai harbours,” said Superintendent of Police K.K.N. Anburajan, after inspecting the seized logs on Wednesday.
Among the accused was Shaik Masthan from Railway Kodur who was sent to judicial remand as he was allegedly involved in two murders and a case of attempt to murder.
The other members of the smuggling gang will be nabbed soon, said the SP.