A smuggling attempt of prohibited Red Sandalwood was allegedly foiled by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs officials on Thursday at Mundra port in Kutch district.
According to sources, the sleuths seized a container containing 379 logs of red sandalwood weighing a little over 12 metric tons of banned red sandalwood worth over Rs 6 crore.
DRI had received information about a large quantity of red sandalwood being smuggled in a container at the Mundra port, according to the information. The DRI took action based on this piece of information and decided to inspect the container.
The team was disappointed when they discovered some rice in the front of the container. However, they decided to look into it further and were surprised to discover a large quantity of red sandalwood in the container.
The consignment was being imported by a Noida-based company called Bholi Hardware & Exports Pvt Ltd.
During the inspection, officials discovered that “sandalwood was being imported by misdeclaring them as brass builder hardware and iron builder hardware,” according to officials.