Nine Cambodians had been apprehended after illegally entering Laos near the Stung Treng border on Tuesday, officials said yesterday.

Sun Ban, commander at police station 701 on the Cambodia-Laos border in Siem Pang district, told the Post yesterday the nine men captured in Laos’s Champasak district were thought to have been logging illegally. 

Laotian authorities had not yet provided further details to their Cambodian counterparts, he said.

Siem Pang district police chief Var Sophan said he had not yet received calls for help from the families of the men.

Under a district border agreement, the men would be released if their families paid Laos US$500 each, he said.

Tuesday’s incident comes less than a month after Laotian authorities detained 19 Cambodians for illegal logging in the same area.

Fifteen of them were released two weeks ago after their families each paid more than $450 to Laos for their freedom.