NAKHON RATCHASIMA - Thirty-four Cambodian phayung wood poachers have been arrested in a sting operation conducted by a joint government force on Saturday.
The joint government force was comprised of police from Nakhon Ratchasima's Khon Buri and Buri Ram's Non Din Daeng districts, personnel from the 3rd Artillery Battalion of the 2nd Army, officials of the Thap Lan National Park in Khon Buri district, and officials from the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
The operation was launched after Non Din Daeng police of Buri Ram province on Aug 25 stopped a truck with 14 planks of processed phayung wood and arrested Arwut Ditprasak, 33, of Sa Kaeo province.
From the interrogation of Mr Arwut the police learned that a number of Cambodian migrants had been sent across the border by a timber smuggling ring, whose members comprised both Thais and Cambodians, and deployed in the Thap Lan National Park to fell protected phayung or Siamese rosewood trees.
Mr Arwut told the police he was supposed to go into the national park to pick up the migrants after they had finished their jobs.
The police seized a mobile phone from Mr Arwut. A police officer, who disguised himself as Mr Arwut, went into the national park to contact the poachers. The poachers were told to wait at a rendezvous in the Khon Buri forest reserve in tambon Chorakhehin in Khon Buri district to be picked up.
On Saturday, a number of officials from the combined government force went into the forest reserve on Mr Arwut's truck and two other vehicles to pick up the Cambodian migrants, while others were deployed around the area for interception in case they tried to escape.
At the rendezvous, the Cambodian poachers, who hid in the forest, ran to the two vehicles with their belongings, not knowing they had been trapped.
They knew they had been arrested after they were brought to Khon Buri police station.
Found in their possession were parts of motored chainsaws they used to fell trees and survival gear.
Irat, 28, one of the poachers, said they had been hired by Cambodian investors to cross the border into Thailand to fell phayung trees and smuggle processed wood into Cambodia.
He said all of them sneaked across the border into Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district. From there, they were taken by a group of Thais in the smuggling ring in a vehicle to Thap Lan National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima's Khon Buri district.
They had been in the forest for about a week and about 50 phayung wood planks had been brought out of the national park by Mr Arwut.
Police would proceed with the investigation to find members of the timber smuggling ring.