Mangalore: Smuggling Bid Foiled - Wood Worth Rs 3 Crore Seized, Four Arrested

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Oct 24: In a major operation, the officials of the Mangalore unit of the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) busted a smuggling bid and arrested four persons at the container yard in New Mangalore Port here on Tuesday October 23 at around 8 pm.

Undeclared Red Sanders Wood weighing 10.5 tonnes, worth Rs 58 lac was seized during the operation. A raid was also carried out in Kannur, Kerala where 18 tonnes of the same variety of wood was confiscated. The total value of the 28.5 tonnes of seized wood is Rs 3 crore in India and Rs 15 crore at international rates.

Mustafa Rahman and Abdul Kalam

The arrested are Mustafa Abdul Rahman (50) and Salih M K alias Mohammed Salih (44) of Kannur in Kerala, Abdul Kalam alias Asad (43) of Mallapuram and Edward George (36) of Aluwa. All of them were arrested in Mangalore.

The DRI officials, acting on prior intelligence, searched the container belonging to Cochin-based M/s Rnath Exports in Mangalore. Logs of Red Sanders Wood worth Rs 58,10,000 were found stored in the container ready for export. Red Sanders Wood is an endangered species and the law prohibits its export.

The containers had been declared at the customs as containing plywood. However, on inspection by the officials, logs of Red Sanders Wood, weighing 5,810 kg, were found hidden beneath the plywood. They were to be exported to Jebel Ali, Dubai.

The export of Red Sanders Wood is prohibited under the Customs Act 1962. Accordingly, the logs were seized, together with 300 sheets of plywood valued at Rs 5 lac.

Among the four arrested, Mustafa Abdul Rahman was the person concerned with export activities of M/s Rnath Exports, Cochin, and was fully aware of the prohibition. According to his statement, he had planned to flee to Malaysia immediately after smuggling the wood.

Abdul Kalam supplied the logs for export while Mohammed Salih arranged for the storage and transport of the goods. Edward George assisted Mustafa in his export and financial operations.

The four were arrested under section 104 of the Customs Act, 1962 for committing an offence punishable under section 135 of the Act.

Further investigations are on to find out the source of the logs. It is suspected that there may be more persons involved in the smuggling ring.