Five Cambodian men have been arrested for allegedly felling a protected Siam rosewood tree and chopping it into 34 short planks to smuggle out of a national park in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Wichit Kijwirat, Khon Buri district chief, interrogated the five men at the Thap Lan National Park management office in Tambon Khok Krachai after their arrest on Monday.
The suspects, aged between 22 and 44 years old, were arrested by a fast-deployment unit of park officials and troops from the Second Army Area. They were spotted carrying 34 planks of the protected hardwood in a forest behind Ban Lampiak village in Tambon Lampiak.
