The Lao embassy and forestry police yesterday confiscated 1,664 high-grade logs believed to belong to a transnational illegal logging network preparing to export them to China. The logs, which were kept in 11 containers at a Lat Krabang warehouse, were identified as the rarePayoong timber, which is one of the most expensive hardwood. In Southeast Asia, it is found only in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
Chomwat Chinthai, of the Forestry Police Division, said the custom invoice showed that the logs were transported to the depot by a Thai freight company and destined for export to China by a Lao firm.
But Pol Col Chomwat said Lao officials had insisted that since they had never issued a permit to export payoong wood to either Thailand or China, so it was possible that the seized timber was smuggled in from a neighbouring country and may have been illegally felled from a Thai forest.
Police will today summon the companies' operators for questioning.
They could be charged with smuggling timber into the country and occupying protected wood.
National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department chief Damrong Pidet, said state officials from several agencies were involved in the illegal smuggling of the timber. He said the logs were likely to have been cut from a Thai forest, exported to Laos and then imported back to Thailand via the Mukdahan checkpoint as Lao timber.
''Illegal logging on such a scale could not be carried out without the help of state officials,'' said Mr Damrong.
Police recently seized another shipment of high-grade timber in the same northeatern province believed to have come from a Thai forest and sent to Laos for re-export to the kingdom.Bangkok Post
