Owner of subsidiary in Bangkok where cadmium waste was found charged
More than 3,500 tonnes of cadmium waste were allegedly found on Wednesday at factories belonging to the Samut Sakhon-based J&B Metal Company Limited amid a series of raids on its premises.
Police officials from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and the Department of Factories said they had discovered 300 tons of cadmium waste in its subsidiary factory in the Rama 7 area of Bangkok while another nearly 3,400 tons were reportedly found in its factory in Samut Sakhon province.
This was the fifth location where illegal cadmium waste from Tak province was being stored.
The cadmium waste was originally sent from a factory in Tak province to a location in Samut Sakhon. Further investigation revealed hidden stocks of cadmium waste at four locations in Samut Sakhon and Chonburi provinces. However, officials said thousands of tons of cadmium waste had gone missing, prompting ongoing search efforts.
On Wednesday, officials inspected Thai Metal Wheel Co Ltd, a subsidiary of J&B Metal Co Ltd, in Bang Sue, Bangkok, and found around 190 big bags containing cadmium waste, weighing around 300 tons in total, inside the factory.
Wanna Kaengrungreungchai, the wife of Jessada Kaengrungreungchai, and a partner of J&B Metal Co Ltd in Samut Sakhon, admitted to being the owner of the factory in Bangkok.
Police have seized all the cadmium waste and charged her with possession of hazardous materials without permission.
Wanna explained that the cadmium waste found in the factory was supposed to have been taken to the warehouse of J&B Metal in Samut Sakhon. However, because of an incident, the transfer did not happen, and since then she had not met her husband.
Police have issued a summons for Jessada to meet with them on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Nattapol Rangsitpol, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Industry, said that he had visited the J&B Metal factory in Samut Sakhon to monitor the situation regarding cadmium waste. During the inspection, he found a large quantity of cadmium waste stored in big bags within the factory premises, estimated to be over 3,378 tons.
This means that the J&B Metal factory had hidden over 6,378 tons of cadmium waste, he alleged.
