SURAT THANI: Six senior police officers have been transferred from their station after one of them was suspected of building a house with wood felled in an area that was about to be declared a forest reserve.
Pol Maj Gen Apichart Boonsrirote, the Surat Thani police chief, on Friday ordered the six to immediately leave the Phunphin district police station and report to provincial police headquarters in Muang district.
They included Pol Col Kris Osathaphun, the station chief, and his two deputies: Pol Lt Col Wilas Sornchai and Pol Lt Col Sakkaratch Sakhonpaisal. Also transferred were Pol Lt Col Opas Singnui, Pol Lt Col Kukiat Nunil and Pol Capt Preecha Somnun.
The five more senior officers were the superiors of Pol Capt Preecha, who was already being investigated for his alleged link to the seizure of illegally felled logs.
“Investigators are looking into the ownership of a house being built in Phunphin district using dead trees as poles and they suspect it belongs to Pol Capt Preecha,” the provincial police commander said.
Also found on the site where the house is being built were 24 fallen trees and 103 processed logs and poles, authorities said.
One of several illegally felled trees is seen on a truck seized by police in Wipawadi district of Surat Thani on Jan 11. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)
Investigators have traced the trees used to build the house and found connections with a seizure made on Jan 11 in Wipawadi district. On that day, police arrested Yutthana Promwiset, 38, and five others, and seized 21 logs found on five 10-wheel trucks. The seized items were from an area that was about be declared a new forest conservation area, and a subsequent search on Tuesday found at least 40 more pieces of wood.
All six of those arrested on Jan 11 were charged with encroachment, as well as felling trees and possessing logs from an area to be designated as a forest reserve.
Mr Yutthana, an assistant to the kamnan in tambon Namrob of Phunphin district, was fired from his job.
Any person encroaching on areas set aside to be declared a forest reserve or cutting trees in such areas faces legal action, said Col Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4. “The area (in Wipawadi district) will be conserved as a watershed, he added.
Police, soldiers and forestry officials have also found several more felled trees and processed wood in two other locations. They were either used to build houses, left on the ground or hidden in a pond.
Authorities on Tuesday inspect an area where logging had taken place on land that was to be set aside as a forest conservation area in Wipawadi district of Surat Thani. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)