The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) has seized assets totaling 43 million baht from human traffickers and gangs illegally trading in <i>phayung</i> wood.
Most of the seized assets belonged to two men, Padoongsak Boonpinij and Sutthipong Chuaypat, who were arrested for smuggling Myanmar migrant workers into Thailand, Amlo deputy secretary-general Suwanee Sawaengpol told a press briefing on Monday.
An investigation found the men accumulated a combined 31 million baht of deposits in bank accounts and Government Savings Bank lotteries (officially known as premium savings certificates, or PSCs), the proceeds of smuggling illegal migrant workers.
Arrest warrants had been issued for five other individuals allegedly linked to the suspects and police suspected a total of 45 people may have been involved in the human trafficking ring.
Pol Capt Suwanee said other assets were confiscated from more than a dozen members of two gangs involved in smuggling and illegally trading Siamese rosewood (phayung), a protected species, in Amnat Charoen province.
The impounded items included a number of vehicles used for transporting illegally harvested phayung timber such as backhoes, trucks, 6-wheel trucks and pickups.