DRI Busts Rs 6.26 Crore Red Sanders Smuggling Racket, Four Arrested

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) stopped a smuggling attempt involving red sanders wood, which is very valuable and worth about Rs 6.26 crore. They seized 15 metric tonnes of this wood from different warehouses and arrested four people involved.

Red sanders are a protected species. It’s listed under international and national laws, meaning you cannot export it freely. It’s illegal or strictly controlled to sell it outside India without special permission under the Foreign Trade Policy.

The DRI officers received clear and specific information that red sanders wood was being secretly stored in different godowns in and around Chennai. DRI said they were attempting to illegally export this red sanders from Chennai by routing it through Delhi.

Based on this information, DRI teams planned and carried out searches at three different locations. These searches were conducted systematically over three days, from December 9, 2025, to December 11, 2025, to stop the illegal activity and seize the smuggled goods.

At one of the locations, DRI officers found about 169 high-quality red sanders logs, weighing around 5.55 metric tonnes. Out of these, 79 logs were wrapped and hidden using white HDPE packing. They were fully prepared to be loaded onto a truck.

The smugglers planned to send the red sanders to Delhi illegally, and to avoid detection, they were showing the shipment as “household articles”, even though it actually contained valuable red sanders meant for illegal trade.

At the other two locations, 9.55 MT of red sanders in the form of logs, roots and furniture were recovered and seized.

DRI also arrested four persons, including a major operative, his two associates who were involved in packing and transportation of red sanders and a supplier-side intermediary. However, further investigation is still ongoing.