Tip Leads Police to Mondolkiri Timber Cache

Military police in Mondolkiri province, an area known for illegal logging, are searching for the owners of a haul of valuable timber seized on Wednesday morning following the arrest of a teenager guarding the cache.

Brigadier General Sak Sarang, the provincial military police chief, said his officers were tipped off the night before by a local resident who saw people dropping off the chunks of timber at two adjacent, walled-off plots of land in Sen Monorom City.

He said his men arrived at 5 a.m., seized the timber and arrested an 18-year-old who was at the scene.

Brig. Gen. Sarang said the teenager was being questioned and he did not yet know what, if any, additional information he had divulged.

“Our military police officers are questioning the arrested suspect to find the owner of the wood, but they have not yet reported to me,” he said.

The general said the timber had yet to be measured but estimated the stash, a combination of luxury-grade Thnong and first-grade Sokrom, at about 10 cubic meters.

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