Overview

• On August 9, a joint operation by the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force and Chapadu village police intercepted two cars and a motorcycle carrying 1,087 kg of red sanders logs and arrested Naga Dastagiri Reddy with five accomplices.
• Kadapa Superintendent of Police E G Ashok Kumar said Dastagiri Reddy faced 86 smuggling cases and 34 theft charges in the district, marking him as the network’s most wanted field operator.
• Authorities invoked non-bailable charges under the Preventive Detention Act and secured judicial custody for Dastagiri Reddy’s wife, who is also accused in the smuggling ring.
• Investigators mapped routes sourcing timber from the Palakonda and Lankamala forests through Chapadu mandal to urban markets, prompting stepped-up forest patrols.
• Special teams are expanding probes into financiers and other cells after earlier arrests of Delhi-based funder Saleem and Hyderabad hawala operator Vikramsing Solanki.