Huge haul of red sanders wood

Officials from the Central Intelligence Unit of the Jawahar Nehru Custom House at Nhava Sheva raided a container on Tuesday and seized 26 tonnes of red sanders wood valued at Rs 2 crore in the local market and at least three times more in the international market.

An official from the CIU said,“We received specific information that a container with red sanders concealed in a shipment of synthetic yarn is likely sail on the vessel MV Felicitas on Wednesday. The export of red sanders is prohibited by law and we raided and seized the container and confiscated the consignment.”

Custom officials said this was the first seizure of this year. “Earlier,smuggling syndicates would use fake identities to smuggle contraband but now as the anti-smuggling initiatives put in place by Customs has prohibited such operations,the smugglers have started luring genuine exporters by giving monetary benefits or by filing shipping bills without their knowledge,” added the official. Further investigations are on.

Red sanders,found mostly in southern India,is a hard fragrant timber prized for cabinetwork. However,there is a ban on the sale and export of this wood.