A senior customs official and seven fish merchants have been arrested by police and customs officials for involvement in the trading of 132 tonnes of frozen fish, which was impounded in 2019 after being seized from a Somalian fishing vessel suspected of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).

At a joint press conference today (Thursday), Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn, the deputy national police chief, and Patchara Anuntasilpa, director-general of the Customs Department, said that a total of 147 tonnes of frozen fish, contained in seven cargo containers, were impounded after the skipper of the vessel could not produce documents to prove the origin of the fish.

According to customs procedures, the impounded fish could be sold to state officials or to people in the neighbourhood of the port where the fish in containers were kept, but not to merchants.

Alternatively, if litigation in the case is complete, the Customs Department can sell the fish to the public, sell them at auction or destroy them.

Surachate said that Kirati, a customs official in charge of overseeing the impounded merchandise, submitted a fake report to the Customs Department, claiming that the impounded fish was sold to 98 people.

In fact, however, 132 tonnes had been sold to a major fish merchant in Mahachai district of Samut Sakhon for about 2.7 million baht, said Surachate, adding that a portion of the proceeds, 1.8 million baht, was sent to the Customs Department and the rest was split among Kirati’s colleagues.

The deputy police chief also said that, had the fish been caught legally, it could have fetched about 300 million baht in the Thai market.

He said Thailand had to take legal action against skipper of the Somalian fishing vessel, otherwise the country may risk being sanctioned by European countries for breaching IUU regulations.