Suspect flees before police raid over illegal wood

The combined team of Army, border patrol police, and Royal Forestry Department officials seized 101 teak planks and 72 mai krayaloei (a legally protected species of inferior wood) planks and a chainsaw

Following a tip-off, authorities had staked out the house of Phrae native Supachok Saengdok, 51, in Ban Doi Tone (Moo 10) in Tambon Pa Plu. Supachok had fled before the morning raid.

Supachok is expected to face charges of cutting trees from a conserved forest behind the village without permission and storing the processed planks at his home pending sales to investors, said Pol Lt-Colonel Phusit Kritsamai, head of the 333rd border patrol police company in Chiang Mai.