After lying in ambush for hours on the river, the scouts intercepted 90 logs of valuable timber that illegal loggers had tied together into rafts and floated down the river, following the flow of the hydroelectric dam.

Having received information that illegal loggers would be transporting a large quantity of timber from the highlands to Da Nang for sale, on the evening of January 14th, a reconnaissance team from the Economic Police Department (PC46, Quang Nam Provincial Police) ambushed the Vu Gia River section passing through Dai Son commune (Dai Loc district). After waiting for many hours, in the early morning of January 15th, the reconnaissance team spotted a raft made of many logs floating downstream and immediately rushed out into the middle of the river to intercept them.

“There were three people on the raft at the time. Seeing the police, they jumped into the river and fled,” said Colonel Le Van Hong, Head of PC46 Department. Upon counting, the raft was found to be made from 90 planks of precious wood with a volume of nearly 18 cubic meters, belonging to groups II to VII, and without any forestry inspection markings.

90 logs were tied together to form a raft and floated on the river after the hydroelectric dam released water. Photo provided by the police.

According to the police, this timber was illegally harvested from forests in Nam Giang district. After felling the trees, they tied them into rafts and waited for the hydroelectric dam to release water before floating them downstream for sale. To avoid detection, the illegal loggers usually operate the rafts at night.

The timber was then transported to the Dai Loc District Forest Management Unit. The case is still under investigation.

According to VNE