The Ullal Police on Wednesday raided illegal sand extraction dens around Batpady Beach near Talapady and seized 16 boats and about 30 loads of illegally extracted sand from beaches.

Ullal Police Inspector Gopikrishna said that the extracted sand was stored in a coconut plantation at three places at Sasihithlu and Talapady. Of the 16 boats, two were large ones and the rest were small, he added.

The sand so collected was transported to Kerala during the night, avoiding the highway.

The illegal operators used to take the Devinagar Road to reach places in North Kerala. A communiqué from the police here said that the team launched the raid on specific information that Hanif, Shakeel alias Shakir, Raghunath and Sudhir, were involved in illegal sand extraction from the beach.

The seized sand and boats, together worth about ₹ 17 lakh, have been handed over to the Mines and Geology Department. The department will now investigate further, the communiqué said.

Police Commissioner T.R. Suresh, Deputy Commissioners of Police Hanumantharaya, Uma Prashanth and Assistant Commissioner of Police (South) Rama Rao supervised the operations as the police were regularly getting complaints about illegal sand extraction and transportation from Batpady area.

Besides Mr. Gopikrishna, the raiding team comprised Sub-Inspectors of Police Vinayaka Thoragal and Gurappa Kanthi, Assistant Sub-Inspectors of Police Radhakrishna and Vishwanath Rai, contables Dinesh, Manohar, Prashanth, Sudarshan, Poorvachar, Ranjith, Lingaraj and Ashok.