Anantapur: In a major breakthrough, Kadapa police has arrested international red sanders smuggler Kandaswamy Parthiban, a close associate of Kollam Gangireddy and Dubai-based smugger Samul Hameed alias Sahul Bhai.
A special police team also arrested three Tamil Nadu smugglers at Mount Road in Chennai, and seized a vehicle along with 638kg of red sanders logs.
Parthiban, 46, along with smuggler Kollam Gangi Reddy, jointly carried out the red sanders smuggling for about 15 years. He conducted more than 1,000 tonnes of red sander load business illegally and is believed to have made as high as Rs 1,000crore out of this. He purchased movable and immovable properties through smuggling, police said.
“Parthiban and Kollam Gangi Reddy visited Dubai and met Sahul Bhai of Dubai to further intensify the red sanders smuggling and spread their network globally. The special teams are trying to unearth his links with international smugglers in China, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian countries,” Kadapa SP P.H.D. Ramakrishna said.
He said that, following a tip off, a special team raided the den of Parthiban in the Red Hills area of Chennai on Monday and arrested Parthiban and also Tamil Nadu-based smugglers Thangaraju Ashok Kumar Raju, 33, Ramaswamy Murugeshan, 50, Andy Raman, 59, of Dharmapuri district in TN.
Police came to know of the presence of the Parthiban gang from other smugglers. Parthiban is a native of Chennai. He studied up to graduation and worked as a temporary employee with a private sector bank for some time.
“Being attracted to the easy way of earning money, he developed contacts with an international red sanders smuggler namely Sandan Meeran, who is now in China, and indulged in red sanders smuggling activities since 2001.
Sandan Meeran introduced him to Sahul Hameed alias Sahul Bhai of Chennai and, in turn, he introduced him to Kollam Gangi Reddy, a notorious international red sanders smuggler from Kadapa,” Mr Ramakrishna said.
He developed contacts with red sanders smugglers of Chittoor, Kadapa and Kurnool districts and used to purchase red sanders logs from them, arranging vehicles, illegally transporting the RS logs and selling them to the interstate/international smugglers in Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai.
Parthiban is accused in 41 cases in Kurnool, Kadapa and Chittoor districts.
