Andhra police crack down on red sandalwood smugglers

Andhra Pradesh, Aug 17: Continuing with their campaign against smuggling of Red Sandalwood, the Andhra Pradesh police have arrested 16 persons and also undertook a major seizure.

The police had found that these persons were smuggling Red Sandalwood in Kadapa district and acting on a tip off they managed to arrest these persons.

The arrests come in the wake of a major crackdown launched by the Andhra Pradesh government against red sandalwood smuggling.

Major seizure:

The police have managed to seize Rs 65 lakh in cash, 122 logs of red sandalwood, 2 vehicles and a mobile phone being used by the smugglers.

The police say that they were attempting to transport the logs to Tamil Nadu.

However it is still unclear whether these persons had felled the trees or were moving out of a godown in which the logs were stocked long back.

The smugglers after the encounter in which several red sandalwood smugglers were killed had been lying low.

They are in possession of old stock and there has been an instance in which they have even stole from a forest godown. These persons were attempting to transport these logs.

However the police and the forest officials received a tip off following which the vehicle with the smugglers was intercepted and the arrests carried out.

Further investigation into the matter is on.

OneIndia News