The Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s investigations into the alleged red sanders smuggling racket, busted at sea last year, has led to the unearthing of a much larger racket in Karnataka, where red sanders from various forest areas in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had been brought and stored for over the last one year to be provided to smuggling rings. The racket was busted in December last year in a joint operation by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Coast Guard in the Arabian Sea. A total of 23 tons of red sanders worth Rs 9 crore, which was allegedly being smuggled to Dubai, was seized. The DRI had, at the time, arrested 16 people and seized two vessels. The case was transferred to Crime Branch Unit III, who went on to arrest nine more accused, including history-sheeter Mohammed Ali Abu Bakr Sheikh, who is allegedly the mastermind of the racket. After making inquiries on the source of red sanders and learning from the arrested that it had come from Karnataka, the Crime Branch had sent a team to Karnataka to make further inquiries. [related-post] “After working in Karnataka for several days, our team traced the godown where the red sanders was stored before being sent to Mumbai. We learned that several tonnes of red sanders was stored in the godown, and had come from numerous sources,” said a senior Crime Branch officer. Sources said that according to investigations conducted so far, uncut stumps of red sanders were sent to this godown from various areas in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Then, they were cut into smaller pieces and supplied to various red sanders smuggling rings as per demand. “The gang that runs the racket out of this godown caters to smuggling rings based all over the country. We are still making inquiries into this larger racket. Inquiries are also underway to try and pinpoint the exact source of the red sanders that was seized in Mumbai so that a link can be established between Sheikh’s gang and the gang based in Karnataka,” the officer added. Officials said that the red sanders would be sent to Kalamboli in trucks, where the trucks would change hands and a different module would drive the trucks to Mumbai. Once in the city, the trucks would be parked in various areas near the docks till it was time to smuggle them. It would then be loaded on ships and smuggled to Dubai, from where it would be sent to China, where there is a huge demand for red sanders, according to officers.
