Oddar Meanchey provincial police are searching for logging ringleaders who led 46 Cambodians on thwarted missions to illegally log timber along the Thai border.
Chhoet Chhorn, the deputy chief of staff of provincial police chief there, said police are on a fact-finding mission for the organiser of 28 men, aged 22 to 45 years, who were arrested in O’Svay village on Tuesday while crossing into Thailand to cut timber.
On Saturday, 18 farmers were arrested in a separate incident trying to illegally cross into Thailand to log.
Thirty-eight would-be Cambodian loggers were killed by Thai border police in the first six months of 2012.
“We are preventing this risky trespassing by searching for the ringleaders. We believe that there won’t be many illegal trespassers without the ringleaders,” Chhorn said, adding that he is questioning the 28 trespassers and releasing them today after they promise to stop logging.
To contact the reporter on this story: Phak Seangly at [email protected]
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