Top red sanders smuggler nabbed

HYDERABAD: Riyaz Khan, one of India's top smugglers and once a key associate of forest brigand Veerappan, is finally in the custody of the Andhra Pradesh police. He was reportedly nabbed recently from his native place, Kattigenahalli village near Bangalore Rural, and police will officially show his arrest in the next few days.
According to conservative estimates by the police, 38-year-old Riyaz might have made at least Rs 200 crore by smuggling red sanders from the Seshachalam forest since 2010 alone.Police are now in the process of nabbing his associates spread across the country. “Nearly 90% of forest-related smuggling in India is done by Riyaz. He has over 40 timber depots in Kattigenahalli village to store the chopped wood. The local police used to turn a blind eye on his activities,” credible sources told TOI. The tentacles of the international red sanders smuggling racket were traced to several locations, including Mumbai, Kochi and Chennai, where ports are located. Incidentally, of the five top sandalwood smugglers in the country, two hail from Kattigenahalli, with Riyaz being the biggest player.
These smugglers engage woodcutters to chop the precious trees in the Seshachalam forest and then move the logs to Kattigenahalli, where they are graded and their price is fixed. There are several north Indians too who play the crucial role of clinching deals with businessmen abroad, especially in Saudi Arabia and China.
Efforts are now on to nab all of them. “We have already nullified the efforts of the wood choppers, and moved the stock from forest to other border states. Now, for the first time, we have traced the person who actually transports it to other countries. We have some leads that he works for some gangsters, but it has to be verified,'' sources in the AP Police said, adding that the last stage was to identify the purchasers abroad.