BANGKOK, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen Cambodians were arrested with equipments typically used for poaching precious rosewood trees inside a national park in northeastern Thailand, police announced on Monday.
Police said they had netted the 17 Cambodians after authorities sealed off the park in Nakhon Ratchasima Province on Saturday.
Police captured a Cambodian man in the same area and found a chainsaw, a home-made gun and 37 bags containing food on Saturday before they busted the other 17.
The gang, believed to have been crossing the border into Thailand in the eastern province of Chanthaburi to meet up with their handler, tried to flee deep into the forest. However, they were arrested as authorities blocked all routes out of the park.
Police said they were hired to poach Siamese rosewood, a protected species listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The case is under investigation.
Rosewood, famed for its blood red hue, is the world's most trafficked wildlife product. It accounts for a third of all seizures recorded by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime from 2005-2014.
Most of the valuable Siamese rosewood has already been logged out in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, leaving Thailand's remaining stands prey to cross-border incursions by poaching gangs.
