NELLORE: The Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) along with local police, nabbed six notorious smugglers and seized 138 logs worth Rs 3.01 crore, two four-wheelers, one bike, 20 mobile phones and Rs 5,600 cash from them after conducting raids in Mallemkonda forest area under Ananthasagaram police station limits on Wednesday.
The arrested included Ravek Kulaintharaj alias Raju, Tameem Ansari alias Tameem Bhai alias Sankar, Syed Abdhahir alias Abu Dahir, Syed Ibrahim alias Khasim, AR Iqbal and Nagur Gani, all from Chennai.
Disclosing this to newsmen here on Thursday, OSD Crimes TP Vitaleswar said 20 cases were registered against the six red sanders smugglers in various police stations of the district. “Ravek Kulaintharaj had been involved in red sanders smuggling since 2014. He has contacts with international smugglers and used to export red sanders to Malaysia, Dubai, Hong Kong and other countries,” the OSD said.
The smugglers had set up godowns at Madhavaram, Poolnamali, Kosapur and Tiruchi. Ravek had exported 100 tonnes of red sanders illegally to other countries from AP forests, the OSD said.
Tameem used to take a commission of `50 per 1 kg of wood after dumping red sanders logs in godowns. He worked under Ravek and maintained the red sanders godowns. Syed Abdhahir had been involved in red sanders smuggling since 2015.