Six persons of three separate gangs of red sanders smugglers were arrested by the police and forest department officials and 37 red sanders logs seized from them in Chittoor and Kadapa districts on Friday.
In Chittoor, police arrested two smugglers and seized 18 logs while being transported in a Tempo near Yelakapalle under Chembukur panchayat limits of Ramasamudram mandal.
Ramasamudram SI M Lakshminarayana said that acting on credible information about illegal transportation of logs, he, along with his men, undertook vehicle-checking and seized the vehicle carrying the logs. Two smugglers, P Surendra and K Vasu, both from Obulavaripalle in Kadapa district, were arrested by the police.
Meanwhile, forest officials seized as many as 19 logs and arrested two smugglers at the Balupalle checkpost in Railway Kodur mandal.
According to information, Balupalle forest range officer Venkata Subbaiah, forest section officer Ramesh and other staff, while checking vehicles at the Balupalle check-post, found the logs being carried in a vehicle (AP 03 1910) and seized the logs and the vehicle.
Two persons, N Raju and Vijayan from Vellore and Tiruttani in Tamil Nadu respectively, were arrested.
Two smugglers were arrested and 20 red sanders along with two vehicles worth `30 lakh were seized in Chittoor district.
The duo work for a Bangalore - based red sanders smuggling gang, police said.
Palamaneru rural CI K Balaiah said they engaged in vehicle checking near Nagamangalam village based on information about the transportation of red sanders to Bangalore.
Police found one of the accused moving ahead of the vehicle with red sanders as an escort to alert the other driver of any police or forest check posts.