Bengaluru: A week after one of the biggest crackdowns on sandalwood smuggling gang, resulting in the arrest of 13 people and seizure of 4,000 kg of sandalwood logs worth Rs 3.5 crore, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths have made another arrest from Mumbai and seized sandalwood logs weighing 100 kg.
Based on the information provided by the prime accused, Abdul Rashid, who is said to associated with an established crime syndicate, the cops formed a team and headed to Mumbai to arrest the accused, who was based there.
While interrogating the accused, police learnt that the accused had transported sandalwood logs in a private travels to Mumbai from where the parcel was to be transported abroad. Upon learning this, the cops headed to Mumbai and arrested the accused. The accused have been brought to the city for further investigation.
The gang was involved in the stealing sandalwood trees for over a decade and then smuggling them within India and abroad.
The police had earlier arrested 13 smugglers, including the gang leader Abdul Rashid alias Puttu Bayar (48), a native of Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, who already has cases of sandalwood smuggling booked against him.
The police on May 18 had conducted a raid at a godown and two rooms attached to it in Doddanagamangala in Electronic City police station limits.
They came across over 100 boxes loaded with sandalwood, meant to be smuggled to Mumbai, Chennai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and Vietnam. The police also picked up 12 smugglers staying in the rooms attached to the godown.
The police said that each box contained sandalwood logs weighing 35 kg.
The CCB has booked all the accused under Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA). They suspect the involvement of many more in the racket.
