Lamma Island incense timber theft arrests
HF: From the SCMP 4th January 2015: Five mainlanders who arrived in Hong Kong last Thursday for a seven-day sightseeing visit were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of stealing 40 logs of incense timber on Lamma Island, police said yesterday.
The 150kg haul, estimated to be worth about HK$1.5 million, is almost three times what police seized in four cases of illegal felling of trees on the island in the past two years.
Acting Superintendent Mak Che-hung, divisional commander of Marine South police, believes police have smashed a gang who came to Hong Kong for illegal felling of the species Aquilaria sisensis, also known as incense trees.
“One of the suspects is a 61-year-old man. We believe he is the core figure of the syndicate,” he said. Police are investigating whether he recruited the four other men, aged from 23 and 34.
He said the incense tree could be used as medicine and sell for HK$10,000 per kilogram on the mainland…full article linked below
Police display some of the incense tree logs seized on Lamma Island. Photo Courtesy: SCMP Pictures
Source: Five arrested for stealing incense tree logs from Lamma Island SCMP 4th January 2016
See: Poachers vs Lamma islanders in battle for rare incense trees SCMP 25th November 2013
Related Indhhk articles:
- Export of ‘kuan-hsiang’ 莞香 incense from Hong Kong Ts’un, Aberdeen Harbour – Ming Dynasty
- Incense Mills, water-powered tilt hammer
- Incense tree Plantation, HK
- Incense Trees in Hong Kong – a vanishing species
- Incense Trees, Wi-Fi ‘Guard’ device to protect – SCMP article
- Incense, Tsuen Wan water mill