Thai police move forward with illegal logging crackdown: Roi Et

[webfact]

Thai police move forward with illegal logging crackdown
By Digital Content



ROI ET, June 13 -- Authorities from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division (NED) raided a site which is a hiding place for more than 30 tonnes of illegal wood.

Authorities believed the seized timber was connected to one of the most important syndicates illegally logging Siamese Rosewood in Thailand' northeastern region.

NED Police Superintendent Pol Col Sittiroj Noppopong, together with Roi Et deputy governor Kraisorn Kongchalard and the provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office led a team of police officers to inspect a house in Nong Pok's Nong Khun Yai subdistrict, belonging to 46-year old Wichien Thimachai.

Authorities found 88 Siamese Rosewood logs hidden inside and buried in front of the house, along with wood processing equipment.

Police also found small logs of Siamese Rosewood near the house, as well as, numerous trucks, cars, and modified vans, believed to have been used to smuggle the woods outside the country. The police now have all of the evidence in custody.

The police said the raid was slightly compromised, as the suspect knew that authorities had planned to inspect the location and decided to hide the logs underground throughout the night. The police surrounded the area until the morning before heading in on the raid and seized the evidence, but the house owner, a suspect, was able to escape arrest.

The authoriies found that the house has fully installed a CCTV system, prompting speculation that the syndicate must have been in operation for a long time and is one of the most important networks of Siamese Rosewood smugglers in the Northeast. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-06-13

[angsta]

Someone clearly isn't getting their 'cut'.

I'll get me coat...

[DeepInTheForest]

One wonders how many of these trees remain. The remarkable thing may be that there are any left to cut down.

Still, that someone's operation was disrupted is something to applaud, alhough the perpetrator's escape is sadly predictable.

Edited June 13, 2014 by DeepInTheForest

[Mudcrab]

The police said the raid was slightly compromised, as the suspect knew that authorities had planned to inspect the location and decided to hide the logs underground throughout the night. The police surrounded the area until the morning before heading in on the raid and seized the evidence, but the house owner, a suspect, was able to escape arrest

Hmmmmm...the General wasn't on the ball with this one letting the ops do it all by themselves

[davidmann]

about time they got some western police ,seems the police are about as good as the girls guides on a sunday outing ,was in thailand in the 70 s returned thought where have all the tress birds and animals gone ,

[kannot]

The police now have all of the evidence in custody.

what they gonna do? lock it all up for life!

[axact]

Them trees might walk, better to keep the evidence in custody. At least they won't need feeding or complain of over crowding

I do find it amazing that in just a few weeks the junta have discovered all this wrong doing that the police were presumablly totally unaware of

[KonaRain]

I know a guy who buys and ships antique wood..

Rosewood would make many guitars and ukes..

Sorry!

[spidermike007]

One wonders how many of these trees remain. The remarkable thing may be that there are any left to cut down.

Still, that someone's operation was disrupted is something to applaud, alhough the perpetrator's escape is sadly predictable.

I suppose it is really about self respect. Any country with enough self respect (not to be confused with false pride) would not allow this. They would put these insects who cut down these trees away for many years. To allow them to cut down these old growth trees, in this day and age, is about as wisdomless as what is going on in Borneo and Kalimantan.

[Daniel Boon]

the photo does not depict recently felled (or sizable) timber ....

[sirchai]

The police now have all of the evidence in custody.

what they gonna do? lock it all up for life!

They'll re-sell it, as they do with the captured drugs.