PHUKET: The Department of Special Investigations is reported today to be investigating ''influential figures'' who have allegedly encroached on more than 3000 rai of Phuket national park to develop luxury resorts.

With one of the billion-baht resorts being razed in a blaze this week and another, finally complete, having its soft opening on Phuket on February 1, the 14 cases involved remain in the news.

According to reports in today's Bangkok newspapers, the DSI has now teamed up with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to use new Anti-Money Laundering laws to pursue those ''influential figures.''

Lt Colonel Prayuth Wongsrinil, chief of the DSI's Consumer Protection and Environment Bureau, is quoted as saying: ''The DSI will deal with the situation with an eye on minimising negative impacts on investment and tourism.''

Perhaps the lieutenant colonel needs to be reminded that his duty is to enforce the law. Worrying about the consequences of doing his duty should not be a consideration.

The latest reports make it sounds as though this investigation is actually aimed at certain unnamed foreigners. The reports portray them as being the likely cause of the problem.

This is odd because last year's original investigations by former National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation chief Damrong ''The Demolisher'' Pidech largely blamed Thais for allegedly misappropriating vast tracts of Phuket's Sirinath National Park.

With the help of corrupt local officials, their falsified title deeds were made to appear genuine. Some of the fake deeds changed hands several times before resorts and villas were constructed on the land by, in some cases, innocent purchasers.

Phuketwan was told by Khun Damrong before he retired that the evidence of encroachment was difficult to refute. Just what point there is in the DSI's new anti-money laundering gambit is unclear.

But we can assure Lt Colonel Prayuth that the best thing for Phuket tourism and investment would be to prosecute all those involved in stealing parkland to the full extent of the law, then let Phuket tourism and investment move forward.