Thai authorities seize illegal cosmetics

SA KAEO, December 14 (TNA) - Customs authorities in Thailand’s eastern Sa Kaeo Province have seized illegal cosmetics, believed to have been smuggled from neighbouring Cambodia and destined for Pattaya in Chon Buri Province, also in the Thai East. Auaychai Kultipmontri, chief of Aranyaprathet customs checkpoint in Sa Kaeo, said that his team and rangers from the Burapa Special Task Force stopped a suspicions Cambodian woman, identified as So Cheit, as she was crossing the border from Cambodian town of Poi Pet on Tuesday, and that the officers checked the woman's cart and found 28 packs of beauty lotion wrapped in three separate plastic sheets, weighing 18 kilograms, without any legal label and license. The 28-year old suspect was taken for questioning at a local police station. She confessed that she bought the lotion, produced in Vietnam, from Poi Pet in order to sell to her friend in Pattaya. The Cambodian woman insisted that she did not know the cosmetics were illegal. The chemicals contained in the cosmetics were found to have been banned from use in both Thailand and Cambodia, after three Cambodians have died after using a similar cream contained such chemicals. (TNA)