Bangkok--26 Oct--FREELAND
Acting on tip offs provided by FREELAND Foundation and their own follow up investigation, Thai Police raided a secret illegal wildlife warehouse today in central, flooded Thailand, where they discovered thousands of reptiles, while arresting the owner. The raid took place in Ayudhya at 1pm by the Nature Crime Police Division of the Royal Thai Police, led by Police Colonel Kiattipong Khawsamang. The so-called “black market warehouse” has been facilitating the flow of at least 1.2 metric tons of wildlife out of Thailand to consumer countries every week.
Police discovered and seized various snakes, turtles, tortoises and pangolins, all sourced illegally from the wild and smuggled to the warehouse that is run by a syndicate. Today’s raid follows a 3.5 month investigation by Thai Police, acting on other FREELAND tip-offs that took them to 4 other illegal dealer premises where four arrests were made and several tons of wildlife were seized. Information on those arrests was held until today on the request of Thai Police as they attempted to find the major warehouse where dealers were sending animals before they are exported to Vietnam and China, usually via Laos and Cambodia. It is believed that several other such secret holding facilities still exist.
The investigation started on July 5th when approximately 500kg of live and frozen reptiles, including hundreds of protected soft-shell turtles and snakes, were seized from a residence in Chachoengsao Province from a trader who claimed he breeds them in captivity. That raid led to 3 other traffickers who appeared to be connected in a syndicate, including one group along the Thai-Cambodian border and a major trader in a suburb of Bangkok — the latter resulting in the arrest of one man and the seizure of 600kg of turtles and snakes. Information from these raids pointed to a secret warehouse in Ayudhya used by the syndicate.
“According to our investigations, we know of at least 3 metric tons of live turtles, snakes and pangolins being secretly moved from Thailand to other countries on a weekly basis throughout much of the year,” said FREELAND Director Steven Galster. “In the past, portions of these shipments were seized along highways and border check points, resulting sometimes in the arrest of truck drivers. Today’s bust is different: it included the discovery of a major secret holding facility and the arrest of one of the major traffickers. Thai Police are to be congratulated for putting a dent in this huge cross border trade.”
Southeast Asian authorities have generally struggled to suppress the highly organized and profitable illicit cross-border trade in protected species. Few perpetrators above market traders, restaurant proprietors and low level couriers have been arrested and imprisoned, due to a lack of in-depth investigations and weak laws. FREELAND, with support from the United States for International Development (USAID), is working to change this by training authorities to uncover and dismantle wildlife trafficking syndicates and supporting the strengthening of laws under a program that trains task forces making up the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network. Today’s raid was led by Thailand’s own police led Task Force.
Southeast Asia is known to be a major source of illegally traded wildlife, supplying a global market estimated to be worth US$10 billion-US$30 billion annually. China and Vietnam are the largest consumer countries of freshwater turtles, tortoises, snakes and pangolins. Illegal trade to supply demand for these species is a major threat to their survival in the wild.
For more information, contact FREELAND Communications Liaison Seamas McCaffrey at +66 2 204 2719 or +66 8 4940 6553.