At 1pm, more than 30 officials from the Livestock Department Region 8 office, which covers the Chumpon, Ranong and Phuket provinces, and officers from the 41st Military Circle were led by Phuket Department of Livestock Development Chief Pornchai Inkamdee to seize a total of 1,342kg of illegally imported beef in Rassada.
Two men, Borakas Torthip and Chaiyong Kongchamnan, were later taken to Phuket City Police Station to face charges of possession or transportation of illegal beef, and the illegal importation of beef into the Kingdom.
Mr Pornchai explained, “The arrest of the two suspects came after we received an order from the director of the Department of Livestock Development to investigate illegally imported beef from India. We immediately contacted the 41st Military Circle and investigated two suspect locations where we discovered 1,342kg of illegal beef.
“The first location we raided was a home in Moo3 Rassada, where we seized 300kg of illegal beef and arrested Chaiyong. The second location was the Andaman Meat Supply premises in Moo 5 Rassada where we found 1,042kg of beef and arrested Borakas who claimed to own the frozen beef,” he said.