NEW DELHI: The Crime Branch of Delhi Police on Saturday said it arrested four men for smuggling red sandalwood from various southern states to other part os the nation as well as outside the country.
The accused have been identified as Nikhil Salwan, Krishan from Rajasthan, Ravinder from Haryana, and Neeraj from Geeta Colony in Delhi.
Cops also recovered 133 logs of red sandalwood, weighing about 4.58 tonnes.
On Friday, the Crime Branch laid a trap for the accused near Ashram Chowk, after a tip-off was received that a truck carrying a large quantity of red sandalwood would pass through Ring Road.
A suspicious truck was spotted intercepted, from which three of the accused were apprehended. Later, the fourth was also arrested.
"A search of the truck was made and 133 logs were recovered from, which was concealed behind the cartons of incense sticks. To identify the recovered logs, a wildlife inspector was called on the spot, who identified the recovered logs as red sanders" said Dr Gopal Naik, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).
During interrogation, the accused revealed that they loaded the trucks with red sanders from a transportation centre in Bengaluru.
To conceal the presence of the sandalwood logs and to mask their smell, they used to stack cartons of Agarbatti sticks on the top.
From Bengaluru, they would smuggle these logs to Delhi-NCR, deliver them to the concerned receivers and store them in godowns situated across Delhi, Noida and other parts of NCR.