O’Yadav National Park officials in Ratanakkiri province have reported a border police chief who is alleged to have colluded with traders who illegally logged forests and hauled timber into Vietnam, environmental activists said on Monday.

Heng Sros, an activist, told The Post on Monday that the alleged “colluding” officer is Min Phon, chief of the police station at Khla Thom, an area close to the Vietnamese border and which is affiliated to Border Unit 623.

A park ranger who asked for anonymity said Khla Thom police station is near a passage through which the Cambodian and Vietnamese traders logged the trees in Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary and others, including in O’Yadav National Park, and hauled them into Vietnam.

“Our team discovered that Vietnamese traders had used five vehicles to haul timber from Cambodia to Vietnam via the Khla Thom passage. We have sent a report to the provincial environmental department and Ministry of Environment,” he said.

The Border Unit 623 head said on Monday that Phon is currently suspended from his post amid a probe into the case.