Police seize ancient Khmer statues
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Police Thursday announced that they had seized five ancient Khmer sandstone statues, reportedly at least 1,200 years old, from smugglers while they were trying to move the items across the border into Sa Kaew.
Following an investigation into statue smuggling across the border at Tambon Tha Kham of Aranyaprathet district, police and an Army team patrolled the area early Thursday morning until they spotted a suspicious pickup truck near Wat Wang Mon and tried to stop it for a search. The truck sped away toward Aranyaprathet district, but police stopped the truck after a brief chase, arrested driver Panupong Sukkho, 40, and discovered the five statues in fertiliser sacks in the truck. It was suspected that the five statues were about 1,2002,000 years old.
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