MADURAI: Special teams of officials thwarted smuggling bids and seized 40 trucks during the month of June this year in a crackdown launched by the Kanniyakumari district administration to check illegal transportation of mines for M-sand manufacturing. Kanniyakumari Collector PN Sridhar said on Sunday that 17 cases were filed by the police in various stations against truck owners and drivers as they transported base materials for M-sand without permit. Seven teams, headed by Tahsildars, comprising officials from the Departments of Police, Geology and Mining and Flying squads from Madurai zone were keenly engaged in the task of preventing such unlawful acts and also imposed fines of Rs 57,83,120 against 119 owners of trucks for transporting overweight load. All those 119 trucks were also seized, the Collector said.