The Chittoor police in the early hours of Saturday arrested six red sanders smuggling operatives, including an accused with global links, and seized 4 tonnes of logs worth about ₹2 crore at Dasukuppam village of Satyavedu mandal, on the Puttur-Chennai NH, 120 km from here.
Deputy Inspector General (Chittoor) S. Senthil Kumar produced the accused along with the seized logs and vehicles at a press conference here.
Acting on reliable information, a special team was formed and dispatched to the border area. The team intercepted a lorry and an SUV carrying the logs and arrested the occupants.
The accused were Kanderi Giribabu (28) of Tiruvalllur town in Tamil Nadu, an international smuggler having several cases against him in T.N. and southern States, P. Ramakrishna (34), C. Ponnuswamy (60), Chinnaswamy (58), Vellayan (57) of Polur in Tiruvannamalai district of T.N. and Nettem Srikanth (28) of Nellore.
The DIG said that Kanderi Giribabu had formed the gang to procure the logs from the Seshachalam hills and transport them to the Chennai port, from where the stocks would be transported overseas.
A case has been registered and further investigation is on.
