Anantapur: In a major breakthrough, Kadapa police nabbed an international red sanders smuggler and unearthed about 4.5 tonnes of red sander logs worth of Rs.9 crore in a dump near Kadapa main road at Vontimitta on Monday. A five acre land owner Bodeti Venkata Ramana of Patrapalli village in Vontimitta mandal in Kadapa district turned smuggler some eight years ago and reached an international level developing nexus with smugglers from other states.

Kadapa SP Naveen Gulati said that Venkata Ramana was friendly with red sanders smugglers Jangala Siva Sankar and Veera Bhadraiah of Gand-lapalli village initially and later became acquainted with Sudarshan of Nellore and Praveen of Tirupati. He developed contacts with another international red sander smuggler Fayaz of Katiganahalli in Karnataka and supplied four lorries of logs till now.

Briefing over the mode of operation of spending money for smuggling, SP Mr Naveen Gulati said, “They were offering coolie of Rs.150 per kg for cutting of logs and Rs.200 to maestri (chief of masons) for selling Rs.13.50 lakhs per tonne to Fayaz.”

SP further added Bodde Venkata Ramana was using maestri and other labourers from nearby villages to cut red sanders from the deep forests of Vontimitta area. He also directed coolies to kill police or forest officials if need be, if they raided during their smuggling operations.

More than 14 red sanders smuggling criminal cases were registered both by police and forest officials against Venkata Ramana and he is still absconding in 11 cases registered at various police stations.

Special police team led by faction zone DSP B. Sreenivasulu along with staff nabbed the smuggler during a vehicle check. They noticed Venkata Ramana, his maestri and six labourers in a Tata vehicle near a petrol pump at Vontimitta and seized 60 red sander logs. During interrogation, the smuggler revealed another dump containing of 100 red sander logs. Altogether, 4.5 tonnes of logs worth of Rs.9 crore were seized, SP said.