IN AN operation mounted in the dead of the night the Thai navy seized four Cambodian long-tail boats carrying tons of contraband goods from Trat province to the neighbouring country and arrested six crew members, Naewna newspaper said today (April 13).
RADM Parach Rattanachaiyapan, the Thai navy’s spokesperson, said the navy’s First Naval Area Command, in cooperation with the Maritime Security Command of Trat province, Border Patrol Boat Squadron, and Marine Corps Task Force 182, patrolled and intercepted the four Cambodian boats approximately two 2 nautical miles from Chalalai pier at 2 a.m.
Three of the arrested crew members were Thai and the other three Cambodian with all of them charged with smuggling consumer goods out of the country.
The boats were brought to Khlong Yai multipurpose port where an inspection of the seized goods, weighing several tons, revealed consumer products such as chicken offal, sweet tamarind, shellfish, and squid.
Five boats were also seized yesterday (April 12) just as the five Cambodian and one Thai crew members were smuggling over 500,000 baht worth of consumer goods to Cambodia via Trat’s Hat Lek, TV Channel 7 said.
Seized were fresh produce such as tamarind, rambutan, star fruit, silkworms, animal offal, and various seafood, as well as electrical appliances.
This operation was also a joint effort between the Maritime Security Command of Trat province and other security agencies. All suspects admitted to receiving 2,000 baht per person for transporting the contraband goods, thus violating the law.
CAPTION:
The tons of consumer goods seized from four long-tail boats last night and the six crew members who were arrested. Photos – Naewna
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