16th seizure of rare wood in Mumbai

After 15 cases of Red Sanders seizures where the rare wood was being smuggled out of the country and no one was arrested or identified in any of the cases, officials from the Central Intelligence Unit of Nhava Sheva Customs arrested two people involved.

On October 24, the container, which had sailed to Dubai and was called back was opened. CIU officials found around 20 tonnes of Red Sanders in it worth around Rs80 lakh on Indian market and could be almost five to six times on the international market. A senior Customs officer said, “We allowed the container to sail to avoid alerting the accused. Once we nabbed one accused we called the container back.”

Officials from CIU laid a trap and a person named Deepak Jare was nabbed. He revealed that he had contacted the export from Poojan Enterprises and also got the advance paid from the Dubai-based consignee in his account to gain confidence. The flour stuffed at their factory premises and the Central Excise clearance seal was put. Then the trailer was taken to a location near Panvel where it was filled with Red Sanders, re-sealed and sent to the port.

“Jare’s arrest helped nab Yogesh Shedekar who provides seals stamps to Central Excise department,” the official added.