A petrol tanker was confiscated by Siem Reap authorities in the early hours of yesterday morning after its tank was found to be stuffed full of rosewood.

Ream Chanmony, spokesman for the provincial prosecutor’s office, said five men were arrested along with the tanker in Banteay Srei district’s Khun Ream commune.

“The Forestry Administration reported the case to the prosecutor,” Chanmony said. “Officials confiscated a truck . . . We don’t know the volume of the wood yet because we have not yet received a report.”

In a separate case in Ratanakkiri, provincial economic police confiscated a 5-tonne truck on Saturday morning that unit chief Nov Dara said was loaded with luxury timber.

“We confiscated a truck containing wood at about 2am in Som Thom commune in O’Yadav district on National Road 78. The truck was heading to Vietnam,” Dara said. “We don’t know how much wood there was yet because the Forestry Administration is still measuring it.”

He added that despite 10 officials collaborating on the seizure, they were unable to apprehend the driver.

“We had a clear plan, so we confiscated it,” Dara said. “[The driver] ran into the forest when we tried to catch him.”

Elsewhere, the National Police’s Facebook page reported that three people were arrested by Mondulkiri military police in possession of 80 pieces of luxury wood in Keo Seima district’s Sre Khtum commune last Thursday.