Police seized protected rosewood logs, or payoong, worth more than two million baht and arrested a suspect in northeastern Kalasin province on Sunday.
A team of police stopped an Udon Thani-registerd pickup truck driven by Taweesak Chanruang, 50, at a checkpoint on the Sakhon Nakhon-Kalasin Road in tambon Pa Sawoey of Somdej district on Sunday afternoon and found 22 rosewood logs in the vehicle’s back.
The seizure followed a tip-off that a gang would transport the illegally felled payoong from Pa Sawoey area to the adjacent Mukdahan province before smuggling it out of the country.
Mr Taweesak allegedly told police he had been hired by an unidentified man several times, at 5,000 baht a time, to transport the wood from Kalasin to Mukdahan.
Authorities said they are stepping up measures to prevent illegal felling of the highly-prized payoong in Kalasin, which has lately become more widespread.
A team of police stopped an Udon Thani-registerd pickup truck driven by Taweesak Chanruang, 50, at a checkpoint on the Sakhon Nakhon-Kalasin Road in tambon Pa Sawoey of Somdej district on Sunday afternoon and found 22 rosewood logs in the vehicle’s back.
The seizure followed a tip-off that a gang would transport the illegally felled payoong from Pa Sawoey area to the adjacent Mukdahan province before smuggling it out of the country.
Mr Taweesak allegedly told police he had been hired by an unidentified man several times, at 5,000 baht a time, to transport the wood from Kalasin to Mukdahan.
Authorities said they are stepping up measures to prevent illegal felling of the highly-prized payoong in Kalasin, which has lately become more widespread.
