Nine more Cambodian illegal loggers arrested
Troops, police and park officials arrested nine more Cambodian illegal loggers in Thap Lan National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima province after they were captured committing the alleged crime by online cameras.
The nine were arrested on Tuesday morning. On Monday night, Thai authorities had arrested nine other Cambodian suspects.
The first group of suspects were arrested after the NCAPS (Network-Centric Anti-Poaching System) cameras detected their alleged illegal activity and alerted officials.
They were arrested on Monday night when they were about to make off with 99 processed planks of Siamese rosewood in their backpacks. Nine others managed to flee but the authorities pursued them and made the arrests the following morning.
At 8am on Wednesday, Thai authorities took the 18 Cambodians to the Khon Buri district office to begin legal action against them.
During interrogation on Wednesday morning, the suspects said they were hired by a Thai businessman to sneak across the border to fell trees, process the logs and carry them back across the border. They said 45 of them had crossed the border into Thailand last Thursday.
