Seven nabbed for B35m phayung haul
About 35 tonnes of Siamese rosewood worth 35 million baht was seized and five Thai nationals and two Chinese suspects detained in raids at two warehouses in Samut Prakan yesterday.
One suspect told police the timber, also known as phayung, was stored at the warehouses on Soi Nam Daeng 17 in Bang Phli district awaiting export to China, said Pol Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, the deputy national police chief.
The suspect was named as 37-year-old Kittiporn Pimollert mongkol, a Chinesespeaking Thai tour guide from Chiang Rai.
The other four Thai suspects are Weerawat Thaweewatthana, Supoj Ayi, Suwit Ayi and Suphat Ayi. The two Chinese were named as Hong Jiahun and Sen Jaijun.
Pol Gen Srivara said they are believed to be part of a large gang responsible for smuggling the timber.
The selling price of the prized wood would go up steeply when sold in China, where there is a high demand for phayung. Its value in Thailand is 35 million baht.
Phayung are protected trees which grow in the lower Northeast. Cutting or owning the wood without permission is a criminal offence. Much of the wood was stored in bonded warehouses before being smuggled to ports on the eastern coast bound for China, police say.
Following the raids, jointly carried out by the police and the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNWPC), the police now are looking for a shipping agent identified only as Tong, he said.
The police have learned that a similar amount of phayung worth 35 million baht had previously slipped through a Customs Department inspection of products to be exported, even though they used an an X-ray scanner, said Pol Gen Srivara.
However, Pol Gen Srivara said the timber must have turned up in the images despite the items being well hidden in discreet packages.
Why such a large amount of timber had gone undetected in the inspection process must be investigated, he said. Police will expand the probe to find out who else were involved.
Police said the timber seized yesterday in Samut Prakan had been stored in the warehouses since last month. The police also suspect there might be more phayung in the same lot which has been hidden elsewhere, he said.
The suspects were charged with possessing prohibited timber and sawing equipment without permission and attempting to export the prohibited items, he said.
Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn, head of the DNWPC’s special taskforce centre on forest protection, also known as the Phraya Suea unit, joined yesterday’s raids.
He said his team had expanded its investigation into the phayung wood smuggling network from information obtained from a previous raid at Wat Mettatham Phothiya in Kanchanaburi province.
The team had gone after the gang in Samut Prakan and found it had stored more such timber at the warehouses.
The price of phayung ranges from 400 baht per kilogramme to 1,000 baht/kg depending on the size and its appearance, he said.