Authorities intercepted four trucks carrying 81 pieces of illegal luxury timber at a checkpoint in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district last Friday, District Military Police Commader Sok Min said yesterday.

“The trucks and timber were hidden in the rubber plantation of a company located next to the Cambodia-Vietnam border to wait for the chance to haul the timber to sell in Vietnam via Phnom Krahom checkpoint, but our forces managed to halt them in time,” Min said.

He added that the trucks and sokram timber, whose owners have not been identified, are impounded at the District Military Police office for further legal action by the Forestry Administration.

In a separate case on Saturday, Military Police and Kampong Thom Provincial Forestry Administration officials intercepted a car carrying more than a tonne of rosewood in Baray district.

According to District Military Police Commander Khun Bunhuor, the driver abandoned his car and fled when he noticed the joint forces’ outpost on National Road 6.

“When we received the report from provincial Forestry Administration patrol team saying that they found a car fully loaded with timber travelling from Siem Reap to Kampong Thom province on National Road 6, Baray District Forestry Administration forces worked with Baray District Military Police forces to set up the outpost to halt and check the car,” he said.

In a similar case on Friday, a joint force of Kratie provincial authorities successfully intercepted a timber-loaded car they had been tailing from Sambor district to Chhlong district, but failed to capture its driver.

Head of Chhlong District Forestry Administration Phoung Kunlay said yesterday that the driver had escaped and the seized car and timber were impounded at their office.