Biggest-ever haul of Sandalwood at Vallarpadam

KOCHI: In the biggest-ever sandalwood haul in Kerala and the first of its kind at Vallarpadam, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence sleuths seized an entire container of red sandalwood from Vallarpadam  Container Terminal on Friday morning.The consignment contained 13.7 tonnes of red sandalwood worth Rs 1.37 crore, DRI sources said.The DRI officials chased the lorry with the container of red sandalwood after getting a tip-off. The vehicle was seized from the document centre inside Vallarpadam Container Terminal. According DRI sources, the container was stuffed at the Asians terminal, Container Freight Station, in Willingdon Island and cleared by the customs officials. The consignment was to be shipped to Dubai on Friday evening.The lorry KL 11U 3069 of Mookambika Transports was taken into custody and driver Sabu and assistant Raghu were arrested. The DRI officials, who are investigating the incident, said that  the Container Freight Station where the container was stuffed  is owned by Tisaan Thachankary, the brother of IG Tomin Thachankary. The clearance was given on Thursday afternoon. The container is registered under an export company, Trading Corporation, Palluruthy.“The agents admitted before the Customs Department that the container contained rubber mats which were to be shipped that night itself. But the lorry reached Vallarpadam only at 4 am on Friday,” a DRI official said.“The container after getting the clearance was taken to another godown in Willingdon Island and the whole consignment was replaced with sandalwood. The entire door of the container was removed so that the clearance seal in the container would not be broken. The probe into the incident is still on and the arrested will be further quizzed about the owner of the container and for whom it was being transported in Dubai,” Deputy Commissioner Nawas said.Meanwhile, DRI officials who quizzed the arrested persons found that the smuggling of  red sandalwood has been going on for the last two weeks. “It is learnt that  two containers containing red sandalwood had been transported to Dubai. It is learnt that that the sandalwood was transported from Andhra Pradesh,”  the DRI officials said.