Police doing night patrolling on Sunday arrested three people, including an elderly couple, who smuggled red sanders.
They seized 502 kilograms of red sanders from the accused, who were transporting the consignment on a goods vehicle to HMT Layout in RT Nagar around 1 am early Monday.
The accused have been identified as Abdul Basheer, 67, his wife Aneesa Fatima, 57, and their associate Suhail Khan, 22.
Inspector Mitun Shilpi said sub-inspector Yellavva Mannannavar was on night beat patrolling when she received information about suspicious activity. She alerted senior officials who arrived at the spot as a team.
The accused tried deceiving the police by claiming they were shifting their house, but the police team checked the vehicle and found the red sanders inside.
On detailed questioning, the accused admitted that they were part of a red sanders smuggling racket run by their son Junaid, who is on the run.
Police also found during interrogation that the accused had sourced the red sanders from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. They smuggled it into the city and sold it to their contacts, who shipped it out of the country from Chennai.
DCP (North) Dharmendra Kumar Meena said a bigger smuggling gang is operating in the city and in the neighbouring state and a special team has been formed to track down those involved.
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