The Chittoor task force police in the early hours of Tuesday nabbed notorious red sanders smuggler and exporter Jitendra Mohanlal Katanmal alias Rajubhai (39) from a hideout at Vashi Nagar of Mumbai, after a two-week long sting operation.

Chittoor Superintendent of Police Ghattamaneni Srinivas, addressing a press conference here revealed the details of the operation.

Two armed task force teams from Chittoor had left for Mumbai a fortnight ago, based on information about Rajubhai from smugglers at the lower end. In the early hours, Rajubhai was taken into custody, while search was on for some of his followers in Mumbai. A five-tonne dump had also been detected in Mumbai, belonging to Rajubhai. He was brought to Madanapalle in the afternoon and remanded.

Born in Gujarat, Rajubhai migrated to Mumbai three decades ago and began his career as an onion merchant and exporter to southern states. In 2003, he entered into red sanders smuggling through contacts in Chennai. Soon, he established direct links with Dubai-based red sanders kingpin Sahul Bhai (of Chennai).

He kept procuring stocks from Kollam Gangi Reddy (arrested by the Interpol in Mauritius in February this year) and a Chittoor-based red sanders smuggler, besides several others in Rayalaseema region, Bengaluru and Chennai. During the last 13 years, Rajubhai had supplied over 1,000 metric tonnes of red sanders logs to Dubai.

For exporting the contraband material, Rajubhai used to get Rs.10 lakh per tonne as commission. "Going by preliminary detection, our teams have found assets worth over Rs.400 crore belonging to Rajubhai in Mumbai," the SP said.

"He (Rajubhai) carried out clandestine export of red sanders logs in containers meant for vegetables and other edible goods. It is a big mystery that he could replace vegetables in the containers after they were perfectly inspected and sealed by the officials at the transit points," Mr Srinivas said.

The SP said that Rajubhai made all his money transactions through hawala and no bank transactions were found. "In Chittoor District, Rajubhai is wanted in as many as 13 cases of red sanders smuggling. For the past one decade the police except for hearing his name did not see him. Now, we have some key persons who can identify Rajubhai," the official said, adding that his arrest would help the police nab several more key figures and seize dumps elsewhere in the country, in addition to information about overseas trade.