A Thai durian middleman accused the Aranyaprathet Customs House in the Isaan province of Sa Kaeo of stealing durians price 1.eight million baht.
The story of the durian intermediary caught hearth on Thai social media on Sunday, June 25. According to a quantity of posts on Facebook, the middleman complained that the customs wrongly blamed him for illegally importing durians from Cambodia.
The middleman insists that he had bought roughly eight tons of durians from a local plantation in the northeastern province of Si Sakate. He explained that he employed a truck driver to transfer the durian from the Si Sakate to the central province of Chantaburi for export.
However, customs officers knowledgeable the driving force that the durians had been illegally imported and must be seized.
The middleman then visited the Aranyaprathet Customs House to retrieve the durian but discovered that his products had been all bought by the authorities. He claimed that some officers confirmed him a video that all of the durians had been resold to other authorities departments within the province.
Many Thai residents criticised the authorities for their wrongdoings and demanded an evidence from Thai Customs.
The Director of the Customs Department, Phachara Anantasin, yesterday insisted that the authorities had done the right factor based on the law. He defined that officers obtained a tip-off that a six-wheel truck would travel to a border between Thailand and Cambodia in Sa Kaeo province on June 23 to illegally purchase durians and transfer them to Chantaburi.
At 9.45am on the day, the customs authorities identified a truck matching the given description and promptly signalled the driver to tug over. The truck driver admitted that Cambodian nationals had entrusted him with the durians, resulting in the immediate confiscation of the whole consignment.
Phachara revealed that the middleman later visited the Aranyaprathet Customs House and admitted to being unaware that the Cambodian durian vendor had not obtained the mandatory permissions from the authorities.
Both the truck driver and the middleman face legal punishment but particulars of the fees were not disclosed.
Nevertheless, other durian middlemen in Chanthaburi did not consider the authorities’ claims. A member of the Sa Kaeo Public Network, Amahrin Yeeheng, posted on Facebook today daring the Customs Department Director to visit the customs home earlier than defending his team. Amahrin said…
“Dear Customs Department Director, please do not solely sit on the office and maintain a press convention. Come and investigate While they last on-site. If the claims made through the press convention turned out to be untrue, it might indicate that you are a liar, wouldn’t it?”
The story looks set to run for a quick while but..