The Chittoor police on Sunday morning seized a dump of red sanders logs and a car at a forest location near Nendragunta cross, 30 km from here, and arrested a youth from Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu. The worth of the seized contraband is said to be about ₹1.5 crore in the international market.

Superintendent of Police Vikrant Patil displayed the seized logs at a press conference at the Police Guest House here.

The SP said that acting on a tip-off, the special party led by Additional SP Krishnarjuna Rao, and Deputy SP (Red Sanders Operations) V.V. Giridhar along with Penumuru police were conducting vehicle checking at Nendragunta Cross on the Tirupati-Bengaluru NH, around 5 a.m. Seeing the cops, a blue car tried to give them a slip, but was intercepted, leading to the arrest of a youth, identified as Praveen Kumar , and seizure of 10 red sanders logs inside the vehicle. The accused revealed the information that he was working on the mission to clear a red sanders dump at a forest location nearby.

The cops rushed to the spot and seized as many as 60 logs, all put together weighing around 1.1 tonnes.

Mr. Vikrant Patil said that the special parties formed to curb the menace of red sanders smuggling were active all over the district, conducting random vehicles checks and working in coordination with the intelligence wing and network of informants.

The Penumuru police registered a case and took up further investigation.