It is now learnt that the Vizag port was used by the red sanders mafia to ship the precious wood felled in the Seshachalam forests to Asian countries clandestinely as textiles and spices in metal boxes.

The directorate of revenue intelligence have confiscated several containers carrying red sanders camouflaged as other goods throwing open the prospects that Visakhapatnam was one of the Ports besides Chennai, Tuticorin and Mumbai for smuggling the red sanders out of the country.

As many such consignments get past unnoticed, the involvement of customs is also being probed. In one incident the shipper declared the cargo was granite and in another instance as refractory mortar. In both cases red sanders powder and small logs were filled in the containers destined for Malaysia and Hong Kong. The smugglers hoodwinked many check posts as the containers came to Vizag from Rourkela and Cuttack and Chennai.

Obviously, Vizag was chosen the route of the cartel as vigilance by DRI sleuths has picked up at other ports. In 2013 DRI seized 16 tonnes of red sanders from a Malaysia bound vessel. Similarly the container from Rourkela allegedly refractory mortar as cargo with capacity of carrying 28 tonnes worked out to be 18 tonnes of 400 logs of red sanders.

Red sanders wood smuggled to Malaysia and Dubai and from there it was transported to China and other West Asian countries, where sandalwood is widely used for making musical instruments, medicines and also furnishing homes of the rich.