A 13-member gang of red sanders smugglers was caught after police raided several warehouses in the city on Saturday.
As many as 4,000 kilograms of red sanders valued at Rs 3.5 crore has been confiscated, police said.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB), which carried out the raids, said the gang’s tentacles were spread far and wide. The alleged kingpin, Abdul Rasheed, had been hoodwinking the police in different states for years together, said Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).
Rasheed was also part of a counterfeit currency racket in 2009.
One of the other suspects is M S Basha, a driver who transported the consignments of red sanders from warehouses to the offices of travel operators from where outbound buses depart.
The logistics
Other suspects were tasked with packing and guarding the red sanders at the warehouses. All of them would get a commission once the consignment was successfully transported to the desired destination.
According to Kumar, the CCB was on the verge of raiding one of the warehouses a few days but the gang succeeded in dispatching two consignments of red sanders to Chennai and Mumbai.
The CCB is now trying to retrieve the consignments with the help of Chennai and Mumbai police, he added.