GreenBkk.com Tourism | TWO ARRESTED AS THAI POLICE UNCOVER MORE ILLEGAL IVORY

TWO ARRESTED AS THAI POLICE UNCOVER MORE ILLEGAL IVORY

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

The Royal Thai Police announced the arrest of two men suspected of trafficking elephant ivory. Acting on a tip-off, police stopped a bus in Chumphon Province at 11.30pm on February 27, 2011. A search revealed two Asian Elephant tusks packed inside rice sacks in a compartment of the bus, which was traveling north from Hat Yai in southern Thailand towards the capital Bangkok. Two suspects, one Thai and one Chinese national, claimed the ivory but were unable to produce permits and were detained for further investigation. The tusks are believed to have been transported from Malaysia.

Possession of elephant tusks without a permit and international transportation are violations of Thailand’s Wild Animal Reservation and Preservation Act B.E. 2535 and Customs Act B.E.2469. The tusks seized in Chumphon are estimated to be worth THB500,000 (approx. USD16,000) on the black market.

“The suspects could be charged under the Customs Act because we have proof that the ivory was smuggled across the border from Malaysia,” said Pol. Col. Watcharin Phusit, Superintendent of Nature Crime Police Subdivision 5, who led the interdiction.

Thai authorities are stepping up their efforts to stop illegal ivory trade, which poses a serious threat to wild elephant populations. Royal Thai Customs has seized over 1.5 metric tons of illegal ivory coming into the country so far this year. In 2010, Thailand’s Nature Crime Police successfully investigated, arrested and prosecuted a man smuggling carved ivory out of Thailand to the United States, supported by FREELAND and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). That case also led to a conviction in the U.S.

With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and USFWS, FREELAND and the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network organized law enforcement training and trans-continental investigation sessions throughout 2010 to help authorities in Thailand and across Asia step up their response to illegal wildlife trade, with a heavy emphasis on illicit ivory trafficking. The organization TRAFFIC has also recently conducted ivory identification and awareness campaigns with Thai authorities.

“Thai law enforcement authorities are demonstrating that ivory traffickers better beware these days,” said Steven Galster, Director of FREELAND. “We hope Thai legislators will take note of their hard work and finally enact the new draft wildlife law which raises the punishment to levels that will deter criminals from re-entering the illegal trade.”

For more information, contact FREELAND Communications Liaison Mook Wongchyakul via +66 2 204 2719 or mook@freeland.org

Credit: Tourism Authority of Thailand (www.tourismthailand.org)