The Assam Rifles, over a period of two days from June 16 to June 18, crackdown on a major sandalwood smuggling by intercepting two trucks loaded with red sandalwood near the Indo-Myanmar Border and apprehended seven Myanmarese nationals and four individuals from Churachandpur.

The arrested individuals were transporting logs weighing over 6871 kilograms and worth over Rs 4.8 crore in the international market.

"Assam Rifles has been at the forefront in tackling the menace of insurgency and red sandalwood smuggling is one of the many means adopted by the insurgent groups to finance their nefarious activities,"said PRO Defence (Kohima), Col C Konwer.

It is worth mentioning here that earlier in February, approximately 6,138 kilograms of the wood was also recovered by Assam Rifles from the border areas.