A case of the authorities in Phanatnikhom, Chonburi not being able to see the wood for the trees.
Enforcement officials from the Office of Forest Resource Management in Chonburi had received intelligence from concerned Thai citizens - I know that is an Oxymoron that a factory processing wood furniture located at 172 Moo 10, Tambon Wang Muang was in possession of illegal timber species including illegally obtained rose wood and sandal wood smuggled from Laos.
The Chonburi Branch of The Office of Forest Resource Management obtained a search warrant for the wood processing plant. They searched the piles of wood soon to become furniture mainly destined for places like Israel and what they saw was piles of sawn timber but not a splinter of alleged illegally obtained timber.
The owner had in his possession the legal permits to operate. Nonetheless the officials seized over a million Baht worth of the precious furniture raw materials in the hope that the owners may or may not have the correct permits that would definitely show the origin of the species.
