Police moved quickly after sniffing out a crime involving durians in Chumphon’s Lang Suan district yesterday, arresting a man and woman in a case that proved to be easier to crack open than the fruit.
After being tipped off by locals that a middleman was buying and then selling unripe durians to the public, leaving an unpleasant taste in people's mouths, police launched a raid on an orchard and made two arrests.
Tha Sae police chief Pol Col Thanee Nakhokwik said yesterday his men had arrested Prasarn Neansuwan, 39, a middleman, and Kaew Maithomklang, 60, the owner of a durian orchard.
The raid bore fruit as police caught Mr Prasarn, from Lang Suan district in Chomphon, negotiating the price of unripe durians with Ms Kaew at the orchard. A pickup truck loaded with 1,500kg of the unripe fruit was also discovered, police said.
Mr Prasarn confessed that he'd agreed to buy the unripe durians from Ms Kaew for 45 baht per kilo, making the price of the 1,500kg worth more than 60,000 baht, police said.
The suspects were taken to Tha Sae police station for further questioning, while the fruit was also seized as evidence, police said. Selling unripe durians was a form of deception and a violation of the criminal code's section 271, which is defined as cheating on the purported quality of products vendors sell, Pol Col Thanee said.
Violators face a maximum jail term of three years and or a maximum fine of 6,000 baht.
Meanwhile, the owner of a durian orchard in Uttaradit’s Muang district lodged a complaint after his most sought-after produce was stolen.