KANCHANABURI — A military patrol arrested five cattle smugglers and seized 38 buffaloes and cows near the Ban Pu Nam Ron crossing on the Thai-Myanmar border on Wednesday.
The arrest was made by soldiers from the Surasee Task Force of the 9th Infantry Division.
Illegal buffalo crammed into one of the smugglers' two trucks (Photo by Piyarach Chongcharoen)
The team led by Col Sarawut Chaiyasit, deputy chief of Lard Ya task force, apprehended the five men, all Thais, in a forest near Ban Pu Nam Ron village in tambon Ban Kao of Muang district.
They confiscated 23 buffaloes and 15 cows found crammed into a Lampang-registered 10-wheeler truck and a Ratchaburi pickup truck.
The animals had been brought into the country from Myanmar, officials said.
The suspects and the animals were taken to a ranger unit in Muang district for legal action.
Col Sarawut said the men violated the Animal Epidemic Act BE 2499 (1956) and would be charged with selling cattle without permission from a registrar.
Security officers recently stepped up surveillance patrols and checkpoints on forest roads near Ban Pu Nam Ron crossing to stop illegal migrants and smugglers trying to avoid the Ban Pu Nam Ron crossing.
The move followed the arrest of a Myanmar human trafficker who revealed he smuggled workers into Thailand using a mountain road along the border to avoid checkpoint inspections.
He also claimed he routinely paid off police and territorial defence volunteers at every checkpoint in Kanchanaburi to facilitate his trade.
On Tuesday, soldiers from the same unit caught 24 illegal Myanmar migrant workers near the border crossing in Ban Kao.