PRAMESH S JAIN
International level Red Sandalwood Smuggling Racket busted by CCB Police,Notorious Kingpin with 13 gang members arrested,Rs.3.5 Crore worth of 4000 Kg Sandalwood logs recovered.
“Sandalwood smuggling gang All India most wanted kingpin nabbed in massive operation led by,T.Suneel Kumar,Commissioner of police,under the leadership of,Addl CP Crime,Alok Kumar and under the able guidance of,DCPs as,Girish.S,D.Devaraja and Abdul Ahad along with their a team of 500 contingent congratulations and kudos to whole team”.
Bengaluru CCB Police with 500 Policemen and officers busted a international level red sanders smugglers gang involved in the smuggling of red sandalwood and arrested most wanted all India Kingpin wanted from a decade in many cases has been finally arrested with his 12 members gang.Around 4000 kilograms of sandalwood worth Rs 3.5 crore was recovered from them.
The accused has been identified as,Abdul Rasheed alias Puttu Bayar (48), is the mastermind behind the gang.He hails from Puttur and was on the run for the past 10 years.The other gang members who were held are,MS Basha (40),Shafi Muhammed (30),Munna alias Mohammed Shabbir (25), Ibrahim (28),Annu alias Mohammed Anwar (23) from Bantwal near Mangaluru,Ali Khan alias Mohammed Rahim (40) from Vijayanagar,Mubarak (26) from Konanakunte Cross,Noushad Mohammed (27) and Siddique alias Abubakar (40), from Kasaragod,Kerala and Saleem Khan (50), Zuber Khan (33) and Taheer Khan ( 25) from HAL.
Rasheed used to keep in touch with his associates through instant messaging apps as V Chat app,in order to avoid being detected by the police.
Addl CP Crime,Alok kumar told media persons that we got a credible inputs to our CCB inspector,SK Malltesh who kept a close watch on the gang from past two months he was following there movements and the same information was passed to us based on the information collected by our inspector about red sandalwood smuggling racket a team under the leadership of DCP Crime,Girish.S,swung into action a special team conducted raid on a Tata Ace vehicle which was parked near national travels cargo Godown located in viveknagar police station limits on 17.5.2019 the team searched the tempo and found sandalwood logs packed in 7 boxes and seized 14 sandalwood logs weighing 500kg and arrested the accused Basha who was about to shift the sandalwood logs to Chennai and Mumbai our team took him into custody and during questioning the accused confessed the crime and revealed about his associates and based on his statement our team picked up Zuber khan,Salim khan,Taheer khan and Mubarak and the team grilled all the accused and they revealed that their boss is Abdul Rasheed alias Puttu who is hiding in Puttur under Dakshina kannada district based on their statement a special team of CCB was sent to Puttur to nab Most wanted all India kingpin of Sandalwood smuggling racket who is on run from past one decade Inspectors as,MR.Harish,Mohammed Sharieff Ravuthur and lakshmikantaiah rushed to Puttur and successfully arrested the notorious kingpin Abdul Rasheed alias Puttu and team grilled him who spilled the beans stating that huge sandalwood logs are stored in a godown located in Dodda Nagamangala area under Electronic city police station limits and will be exported or transported to other states and even to other countries based on the information a team of 500 policemen and officers as on 18th May 2019 in the early morning carried out a major surgical strike on sandalwood smugglers the team surrounded the whole area was covered up by all the DCPs and other officers and were instructed to open fire on the villagers or anyone who hurls stones or tries to attack them we have told them to open fire and based on the able guidance and instructions 3 DCPs and other officers in the early morning swooped down into action and raided the Godown and seized the contraband Red sandalwood logs which was stored illegally in the godown our team seized 100 Sandalwood trees logs weighing 35kg each altogether 3500 Kg sandalwood trees logs were seized which values Rs.3.5 Crores in the international market and with this the team has successfully busted the international level red sandalwood smuggling racket and nabbed 13 members gang across state and a detailed investigation by the team of CCB cops it was revealed that the gang has a organised syndicate smuggling gang in various places like Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka,Tamilnadu,
T.Suneel Kumar,Bengaluru City Police Commissioner,told media persons that,
A team of 500 contingent under the leadership of Addl CP Crime,Alok kumar under the able guidance of DCPs as,Girish.S,Abdul Ahad,Devaraj,all the ACPs,PIs,PSIs,and staff of CCB,Central,and Whitefield Division cops did a massive surgical strike on the red sanders smugglers across Karnataka and other places.CCB,Inspector Malltesh executed a two months long operation to collect details of Red Sandalwood smuggling gang the team gathered all information and a high value meeting was called by commissioner of police,T.Suneel Kumar with Addl CP, Crime Alok Kumar and all DCPs and ACPs and other staff were present at the meeting the commissioner collected all the details and ask the officers to conduct raids on the smuggling dens and the team conducted a simultaneous raids on their godowns,they even nabbed a person who was helping them to transport the red sandalwood in buses to reach Chennai,Mumbai and other places from there they used to transport to China and other countries as there they utilise it in making medicines,furnitures and other things and they will be paid good price for the red sandalwood in international market for 4000 kg they will be paid 3.5 Crores and there is high demand for the Red Sadal.The material was then stored at a godown in Bengaluru.The wood would be packed and transported to other cities through a private travels company.This wood would then be shipped to foreign countries like Malaysia,China and Vietnam through air and sea routes.They had a network of contacts in Andhra Pradesh,Tamilnadu, Kerala and Maharashtra to source red sanders.Private couriers would smuggle consignments into Bengaluru where they were stored in godowns in Dodda Nagamangala for packaging.The consignments were couriered to Chennai and Mumbai via private transporters and the exported to countries in South Asia where there is a huge demand for red sanders.Basha named Rasheed as the kingpin.A separate team was sent to Puttur where he was arrested.Earlier,Rasheed was involved in a fake currency note racket in 2009 and also smuggling red sanders. He is wanted by the police of many States.The other members of the gang were arrested at the godown.One member Mubarak, 26, is employed in a travel agency.He allegedly helped dispatching the red sanders from one state to other states and when asked the red sanders are very dangerous as while arresting they attack the cops and there was a huge encounter took place in the past for this,Suneel Kumar said,Andhra Pradesh in Chitoor district especially has got a special squad headed by an IG rank officer exclusively for red sanders smugglers a team of almost 100 fellows from Tamilnadu they are in seshachalam Annamalai forest and there was a huge encounter between Andhra Pradesh police and smugglers almost 16 fellows were Gundownded in the encounter so for our officers were instructed to carry weapons and other materials if any villagers tries to hurled stones at them while arresting the notorious dreaded criminals they were instructed to open fire on them so fearing of getting shot they dint create any nuisance and with this the team has successfully nabbed the notorious dreaded criminal kingpin Abdul Rasheed and his gang of 13 members and seized 4000 kg of sandalwood trees log worth of Rs.3.5 Crores as per international market and finally,Commissioner of police,T.Suneel Kumar,has appreciated,Addl CP,Crime,Alok kumar,DCPs,as,Girish.S,D.
