Two alleged red sanders smugglers have been arrested and 49 logs of the tree worth Rs 10 lakh seized from them, police said today.
They were arrested by Badvel Police yesterday.
Addressing a press conference at the District Police Office in Kadapa today, Superintendent of Police Naveen Gulati said Chapadu mandal resident Ramanatha Reddy (29), who presently resides in Nellore district, and Najeer Ahammad Roshan (27), who is a native of Bangalore, have been smuggling red sanders for 10 years to Dubai, China and other nations.
He said the police seized two four-wheelers and one two-wheeler, besides 19 mobile phones along with 49 logs of red sanders.
He said Ramanatha Reddy, who is small businessman was attracted to cutting and smuggling red sanders 10 years ago, through which he amassed enough wealth to own a residential building at Vinjamuru worth Rs 2 crore, besides 3.5 acres of land, as well as residential plots in Nellore.
In March 2014, the Dhone Police had raided his godown and seized more than 3,000 logs. As many as 16 cases were registered against Ramanatha Reddy in five districts, he said.
The SP said that Najeer Ahammed Roshan was a car mechanic who initially worked with one Riyaz and supplied red sanders logs to one Akram based in Bengaluru.
Later, Roshan himself began exporting red sanders abroad since he had very good connections with smugglers. Seven cases are pending against Roshan, he said.
He said 30 Road Transport Corporation drivers from Allagadda, Nandyal and Atmakur depots of Kurnool district were arrested in connection with the transporting of labourers to cut red sanders from Chennai to Balupalli forest.
