TAK: A team of soldiers from the 4th Infantry Regiment seized a large number of illegally-felled logs and processed wood in a raid at a village in Mae Sot district on Sunday, according to local media.
The raid came after local residents reported that a "high-level official" had ordered illegal logging to be carried out in the area, and that logs and processed wood had been piled up at Pak Huay Mae Pa village in Mae Sot district.
In a search, the soldiers found more than 100 logs of various kinds of trees and about 50 planks of processed wood. There was also a sawmill for wood processing.
Forestry officials from Mae Sot were called to the spot to investigate, leading to the detention of a 62-year-old man said to wield "undue influence" in the village for questioning. The illegal logs and wood were hauled to the forestry office in Tak.
The man allegedly admitted that some of the illegal wood was his, while the rest belonged to an administrative official he dared not name. He said the logs were felled in community areas and hauled to the village for processing.