Some 300 pieces of timber were discovered and two men arrested in separate cases in Pursat and Mondulkiri provinces as they were transporting the logs to Vietnam.

National Military Police on Monday found piles of first-grade timber measuring nine cubic metres in Pursat’s Veal Veng district after receiving a tip-off from local residents.

Pursat provincial deputy military police commander Sou Sovandy said his forces and environment officials inspected Pramoy commune’s Stung Thmey village and found nine cubic metres of concealed logs, which included Sokram, Koki, and Korkoh varieties.

The timber was felled elsewhere and transported to the village via home-made tractors by traders in an attempt to export them to Vietnam.

Provincial environment department director Pan Morokot said it is searching for suspects involved in the forest crimes.

Separately, in Mondulkiri province on August 14, authorities stopped two men and two home-made tractors near the Cambodian-Vietnamese border in Orang district while they were transporting the logs to Vietnam.