Police raid second house full of exotic fish

RAWAI: Police yesterday raided a second house in the Sea Gypsy village in Rawai and recovered more than 1,000 fish of 70 different protected species. The fish were taken to the Phuket Marine Biology Center. As in the previous raid, the police acted after receiving information from Chada Wangboonkong, the specialist head officer of the Phuket Provincial Fisheries Office, who had been told that the house was used for storing the fish before they were shipped to collectors in Bangkok and overseas. Khun Chada told the Gazette that the occupants of the house had apparently been tipped off before the raid and had disappeared. He recalled that the occupants of the same house two years ago, a Thai woman and her Malaysian husband, had been arrested for a similar offense and had been fined by the court.