Authorities seized a large number of payung (Siamese rosewood) logs worth more than 20 million baht in a truck in Pak Thing Chai district of Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday.
Photo by Post Today
The illegally harvested wood was found in a 10-wheeler left unattended at the bypass of Mittraparb Road near Jor Hor-Pak Thong Chai intersection, Provincial Police Region 3 deputy commander Prasit Thamdee, who led the investigation, said.
The seizure came after officials at the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, Region 3, received a tip-off that a gang of wood smugglers would deliver a large number of payung logs in a 10-wheel truck carrying a Surin-registered licence plate from Surin to Bangkok’s Bang Na area, from where the logs would be smuggled out of the country for sale.
Police set up a surveillance team along the route and found a suspicious vehicle on the bypass road in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima and followed it. Two men in the truck, a driver and a passenger, realised they were being followed by police and decided to abandon the vehicle and flee, Pol Maj Gen Prasit said.
Officials discovered more than 300 two metre-long payung logs in the back of the truck. Police are carrying out further investigations to arrest the people involved in the racket, Pol Maj Gen Prasit added.