Rs 25000 crore sanders smuggled in 15 years

One of their strategies was to establish machinery to make small toys and articles, which are in demand at China, in different parts of the country and to export them without any hassles. According to source in task force, their teams from Tirupati had seized one such machine worth Rs 4 crore sometime ago at Chennai and they came to know that there are some more such machines in Bangalore and Mysore.

"There are 200 to 250 outlets selling small toys and other articles made out of red sanders in China and their business is at stake because of measures we took to contain smuggling. Since taking logs from here became a problem, they are planning to setup small units to produce the toys and artefacts as it will be easy to export," a task force inspector said.

He said that the smugglers also smuggling the logs in containers under the guise of some other items to different ports. They also tampering the seals of containers loaded with some other material and replacing them with logs before the container reach the port.

The smugglers are well equipped to tamper and put a new seal with signature and stamp of the officer without giving any scope for doubt for those verifying the container in the port. The officer said that they are strengthening their force to deal with all such tactics of smugglers and bring them to book.

According to task force authorities, 110 cases have been booked, 496 persons including nine international smugglers held, 2,870 red sander logs worth Rs 150 crore seized along with 73 vehicles during 2015.