Navy arrests wood thieves
The Thai Navy has seized a Cambodian boat and arrested four Cambodian crewmembers for allegedly trying to smuggle Bt10 million worth of processed wood, belonging to a protected tree species.
The arrests were made early on Sunday morning.
HTMS Chao Phraya from the First Naval Area spotted the suspicious boat off Rayong’s coast near the Jasmine oil field in the Gulf of Thailand.
The boat tried to speed away, prompting HTMS Chao Phraya to take chase and arrest the four Cambodian crewmembers.
Navy officers boarded the vessel and found 296 pieces of Payung rosewood, a native hardwood tree that is protected against logging. The pieces were hidden in the frozen storage chambers of the fishing boat.
First Naval Area Commander Vice Admiral Rungsak Serisawat said the boat skipper told the officers that he was hired by a Thai businessman to deliver the wood to Vietnam. He claimed he did not know the origin of the wood.
Rungsak said the Navy had learned from a tip-off that a large amount of Payung rosewood would be smuggled out of the country, leading to the deployment of HTMS Chao Phraya to intercept the smugglers.
He said the trees might have been felled near the Thai-Cambodian border in Trat and smuggled to the fishing boat.
