Vessel caught smuggling diesel

Police search the oil tanker MV Nua Samut 9, moored off Chon Buri province, on Saturday. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)
Police search the oil tanker MV Nua Samut 9, moored off Chon Buri province, on Saturday. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)

A small oil tanker carrying 400,000 litres of smuggled diesel was seized and its crew arrested in Samut Prakan on Saturday.

Officials provided details of the raid on Tuesday.

Pol Gen Suchart Teerasawat, director of the police centre for suppression of illegal fuel, said the Thailand-registered MV Nua Samut 9 was boarded and searched on Saturday afternoon by marine police while the vessel was moored near Koh Sichang off Chon Buri province.

Police found an undeclared cargo of 400,000 litres of diesel oil, he said during a media briefing on Tuesday.

Four crewmen on board the tanker were arrested – captain Suwan Inthongpan, 56;  engineer Montree Sukchit, 41; and crewmen Suriyan Meksaenand and Putharak Suisena, 34 and 37 respectively.

The vessel was moved to a nearby boat landing up the Chao Phraya River at tambon Laem Fa Pha in Samut Prakan's Phra Samut Chedi district.

After examining the vessel’s cargo and documents, excise and customs officials confirmed the fuel had been smuggled into the country.

Pol Lt Gen Jirapop Puridet, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said the smuggled diesel would have been sold to pump outlets, boat operators and other clients for 15-16 baht per litre. The current retail price is around 30 baht per litre.

Vocabulary

  • cargo: things that are being sent by ship, plane, train or truck - สินค้าที่บรรทุกและจัดส่งโดยเรือ เครื่องบินหรือรถไฟ
  • crewmen: the male members of a group who work on a ship, aircraft, etc. - ลูกเรือผู้ชาย
  • customs (noun): the checking and collecting of taxes on goods leaving or entering the country, carried out by the customs department - งานที่เกี่ยวข้องกับภาษีศุลกากร
  • diesel (n): a heavy oil used as fuel in engines -
  • excise: dealing with taxes made by a government on some types of goods produced and used within their own country - ภาษีสำหรับสินค้าในประเทศ
  • marine: relating to the sea and creatures that live in it - เกี่ยวกับทะเล
  • moor: to attach a boat, ship, etc. to a fixed object or to the land with a rope, or anchor it - ผูกเรือ, จอดเรือ
  • respectively: in the order in which they were mentioned - ตามลำดับ
  • smuggle: to take drugs, money, people, etc. to or from a place secretly and often illegally - ลักลอบนำเข้า
  • suppression: stopping an activity from happening, in this case, criminal activity  - การปราบปราม
  • tanker (noun): a large ship used to carry oil by sea from place to place - เรือบรรทุก
  • vessel: a boat or ship - เรือ
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