 |
| Illegally felled lumber sits at saw mill in Stung Treng province last week during a raid on the property by authorities. Photo supplied |
Logs seized as trader flees, say Stung Treng cops
Phnom Penh Post | 22 August 2016
Members of the Forestry Administration and police from Stung
Treng province’s Thala Barivat district seized about 1,000 logs of
luxury timber on Saturday, but the woman allegedly in charge of the
operation escaped arrest.
The seizure was made when officials raided the warehouse and sawmill
of Vietnamese timber trader Heng Sam Nieng, who also goes by the name
Yeay Proeung, district police officials said.
Proeung had been renting the land from local resident Vat Dararith
for about two months prior to the raid, and had hired employees to work
at the warehouse, according to police.
“When we entered the site, there were six workers there,” said Anlong
Chray deputy police chief Chin Rattana. “Dararith had made a one-year
contract to rent his land to Yeay Proeung, but she had only been working
illegally for two months.”
Proeung escaped before officials arrived on the scene, police said. Two heavy chainsaws were also seized.
In a separate case the same day, officials arrested two loggers as
they hauled four trees via ox-carts through a protected forest in Preah
Vihear’s Rovieng district.
Cheam Pen commune deputy police chief Ros Lim said two suspects from
Kampong Thom province, whom the police identified only as Nen, 45, and
Knel, 22, were both arrested.
The two suspects were released the next day after paying a 10 million
riel fine, about $2,500, provincial prosecutor Ly Lon said.
No comments:
Post a Comment