Lao loggers arrested after shots fired

Lao loggers arrested after shots fired

Three members of a gang of Lao log poachers were arrested after an exchange of gunfire with a joint forest patrol near the Thai-Lao border in Ubon Ratchathani province on Tuesday.

A team of forestry officials and soldiers spotted a group of 10 log poachers illegally cutting down a tree and sawing the timber while patrolling the Buntharik-Yodmon wildlife sanctuary in Buntharik district on Tuesday.  

The team moved in to arrest them, but the gang members opened fire. The two sides exchanged shots for about five minutes, Daily News online reported on Tuesday.

Three Lao teenagers, all aged 18, were apprehended but the other poachers fled.  The patrol found an illegally-cut chingchang tree, a chainsaw,  two flintlock guns, three sets of battery-powered lights and drug use paraphernalia in the area.

The three suspects allegedly confessed that they and the other timber fellers illegally cut down trees on Thai soil for sale to a Chinese timber trader on the Thai-Lao border.

They told authorities they had made several incursions into Thailand in the past to illegallty harvest  timber.  The trio were handed over to Huay Kha police station for legal action.

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