Acting on a tip-off, a police team deployed from the Kodari in Sindhupalchok seized the logs from Narayansthan forest area on Friday night, when a group of smugglers was loading the logs onto a truck.[break]
According to inspector Bishwa Karki, the smugglers tried to chase away police by attacking them with swords. It was only after the police opened fire that the smugglers ran away, abandoning red sandalwoods and the truck (Ba 2 Kha 8867).
The seized red sandalwood logs supposedly on the way to China weigh around 100 kilograms, police said.
It is the first big seizure of red sandalwoods, trade of which has been prohibited by the CITES, in a long time. In recent months, mainly due to tight security, smugglers had not been able to sneak huge amounts of red sandalwood to China.
It is believed that the smugglers tried to smuggle a big chunk of red sandalwoods, which were broken into pieces and hidden in the forest, to China by taking advantage of leadership change in district police. On Friday, DSP Basanta Lama had handed over the charge of the district police to DSP Pratap Gurung.
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