Customs officers accused of stealing durians worth 1.8 million baht

A Thai durian middleman accused the Aranyaprathet Customs House in the Isaan province of Sa Kaeo of stealing durians worth 1.8 million baht.

The story of the durian middleman caught fire on Thai social media on Sunday, June 25. According to several 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 approximately eight tons of durians from a local plantation in the northeastern province of Si Sakate. He explained that he hired a truck driver to transfer the durian from the Si Sakate to the central province of Chantaburi for export.

However, customs officers informed the driver that the durians were illegally imported and must be seized.

The middleman then visited the Aranyaprathet Customs House to retrieve the durian but found that his products were all sold by the authorities. He claimed that some officers showed him a video that all of the durians were resold to other government departments in the province.

Many Thai citizens criticised the authorities for their wrongdoings and demanded an explanation from Thai Customs.

The Director of the Customs Department, Phachara Anantasin, yesterday insisted that the authorities had done the right thing according to the law. He explained that officers received 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 buy 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 pull over. The truck driver admitted that Cambodian nationals had entrusted him with the durians, leading to the immediate confiscation of the entire consignment.

Phachara revealed that the middleman later visited the Aranyaprathet Customs House and admitted to being unaware that the Cambodian durian seller had not obtained the necessary permissions from the authorities.

Both the truck driver and the middleman face legal punishment but details of the charges were not disclosed.

Nevertheless, other durian middlemen in Chanthaburi did not believe 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 house before defending his team. Amahrin said…

“Dear Customs Department Director, please do not only sit at the office and hold a press conference. Come and investigate the matter on-site. If the claims made during the press conference turned out to be untrue, it would indicate that you are a liar, wouldn’t it?”

The story looks set to run for a little while yet.