Red sanders-smuggling racket busted, 4 arrested

An inter-state red sanders- smugglingracket has been busted and four people have been arrested in this connection, police said here on Thursday.

The red sanders weighing about 2.5 tonne and a car totally worth Rs 1 crore have been seized from them, the police said.

N Radha Krishna, who is the kingpin of the racket, used to smuggle the wood from Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh and store it inPedda Shapur, a village, near here, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team nabbed the prime accused, along with three others, while he was moving in a car with a fake number plate and carrying the red sanders samples to show to prospective customers, police said.

Red sanders, also known as red sandalwood, is a valuable wood which has a huge demand overseas.

The wood grows mainly in Seshachalam Hills spread across Kadapa, Chittoor and Kurnool in the Rayalaseema region and parts of Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh, though majority of red sanders-smuggling takes place from Chittoor and Kadapa.