Police, customs and animal quarantine officials seized about 29 tonnes of frozen beef, illegally imported from India through Laos, from a container truck on a highway in the Borabue district of the north-eastern province of Maha Sarakham on Saturday.
Acting on a tipoff that a large haul of illegally imported meat was to be smuggled from Laos between June 2nd and 5th, highway police, anti-human trafficking officers, customs and animal quarantine officials from Mukdahan and Maha Sarakham were instructed to watch for suspicious container trucks on Highway 23.
The truck from Mukdahan was spotted and the officials stopped it at a checkpoint. Upon opening the container, the officials found the frozen beef.
The truck driver, who was detained, told the police that he was ordered by his boss at Laem Chabang in Chon Buri to take the cargo container to Mukdahan and leave it near a border checkpoint on May 30th, and then wait for further instructions.
An instruction came this morning for him to collect the container and drive it to Nonthaburi province.
The driver was charged with using false official documents and smuggling illegal animal meat into the country, in violation of the Animal Epidemics and Customs Acts
