Pathum Thani: Central Investigation Bureau police seized nearly 11 tons of smuggled avocados, found that the products imported from Vietnam were disguised as other fruits, hoping to deceive officials. The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), Consumer Protection Police Division, together with Customs Department officials, seized 421 baskets of fresh avocados, weighing a total of approximately 10,500 kilograms, valued at 1,200,000 baht, at a market in Khlong Luang District, Pathum Thani Province.
According to Thai News Agency, following information from a source that there was illegal smuggling of avocados from abroad and that there was a change in the transportation method, using small pickup trucks with iron cages instead of large trucks to avoid detection by the authorities, an inspection of 12 shops found illegally imported avocados from Vietnam, totaling 421 baskets, weighing approximately 10,500 kilograms, valued at over 1.2 million baht. The Consumer Protection Police Division, together with the Naga Task Force, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and the Customs Department, joined forces to inspect a fruit shop in Pathum Thani to continue to investigate and suppress illegal agricultural smuggling to prevent impacts on the agricultural economy, consumer safety, and create fairness for domestic entrepreneurs.
In addition, the officers carefully inspected the avocado containers and found that several boxes had Chinese characters indicating that they were 'mangoes,' which did not match the actual products contained therein. Some boxes had been spray-painted to intentionally conceal the identity of the products in order to avoid inspection by government officials. The discovery of such characteristics indicates that the smugglers made great efforts to disguise the origin and type of fruit in order to illegally sell them on the market without going through the legal inspection process. All evidence was seized and impounded, and forwarded to the investigation officers of the Consumer Protection Police Division 2 for legal proceedings. They were also taken to be kept at the Office of Plant and Agricultural Materials Control, Department of Agriculture.