CHENNAI: The Chennai seaport Customs seized 18 tonnes of red sanders worth Rs 9 crore and cracked an operation which revealed misdeclaration of the wood as car accessories, a fake RC book of the truck that was used to ferry the goods and a fake address given by a tenant who had rented a godown to store the red sanders under the pretext of storing chemicals.The 40-day investigation culminated on Wednesday night when Customs officials located a godown in Kundrathur . Sources said the situation was tense as the villagers thought it was a raid before the election. “The godown was in a secluded place near a crematorium. Hence, it was difficult to locate,” said a senior official privy to the operation.The operation started in the third week of February when officials, on a preventive check at Kattupalli port, noticed a container truck parked outside the entry gate. The driver had escaped after he became aware of the checks.The container had 11.16 metric tonnes of red sanders worth Rs 5.57 crore. The goods were declared as car accessories and parts, and were meant for export to Jebel Ali Port in Dubai. The shipping bill was also forged, officials said. The truck registration number did not match the RC book found inside the vehicle. “The truck has been sold and resold many times,” an official said.Customs found that the shipping liner had not verified the KYC documents of the exporter before processing the documents. The staff of the liner has been arrested, an official said.In a follow up action, the Customs officials zeroed in on the secluded godown where the goods were loaded, near Kundrathur. Inside the godown, goods were kept under tarpaulin and husk sacks. Around 7.34 metric tonnes of red sanders worth Rs 3.6 crore was recovered.The godown owner told Customs that the vacant land was leased out to a person from Kancheepuram who had constructed the shed. But the address given in the lease agreement was found to be fake, Customs said.Red sanders are classified as endangered under IUCN Red list.

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