Illegal rosewood seized before being smuggled out of Thailand

BANGKOK, April 9 (TNA) - Border patrol police Monday seized two trucks carrying illegal rosewood planks worth over 1 million baht in Thailand’s north-eastern province of Mukdahan. Sixteen planks of illegal rosewood have been recovered in the operation which took place on a road in Napo Yai community in Muang district. The rosewood planks were set to be smuggled out of the country. Border patrol police also seized communication radios and the trucks ownership documents from the trucks. They continue their investigation to track down and prosecute the illegal loggers. Meanwhile, naval officers Monday arrested 12 fishermen on board three Vietnamese vessels that were catching fish illegally in Thailand territorial waters off Koh Kud Island. Captain Jirat Phukthong, commander of a naval patrol ship that stopped the Vietnamese fishing boats, said the Thai navy has regularly arrested Vietnamese fishing boats, small and big, for illegal poaching in the Thai waters. Acknowledging that the problem has long continued, Captain Jirat called on Thai and Vietnamese policymakers to sit together and find s common solution to the problem. (TNA)