A large stock of rare Red Sanders (red sandalwood) worth over Rs.100 million arrived at the Colombo Port on transit as a part of an illicit international syndicate was seized by the Sri Lanka Customs today.
The contraband arrived in the country on November 10th from Chennai, India on a transit was to be shipped to Jebel Ali port in Dubai.
Director Customs Bio Diversity Protection Unit Samantha Gunasekara said the consignment declared as sanitary ware was searched on a tip off and found fine mature Red Sanders logs weighing over 4.5 metric tonnes in a 20 foot container.
The container was opened in the presence of Customs Director General Jagath P Wijeweera and representatives of Customs Preventive Unit and Bio Diversity Protection Unit.