NGO calls for tighter border controls to curb illegal trade

FILE - In this March 14, 2017, file photo, customs officers display seized rhino horns during a press conference at the Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok, Thailand. With wildlife trafficking escalating worldwide, some countries are starting to “follow the money” in an effort to track down the kingpins financing crime rings. The United Nations urged the world’s countries to adopt laws that allow wildlife crimes to be investigated by money laundering agents who can have assets seized. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

KUALA LUMPUR: TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, has called for tighter border controls as it hails the arrest of a major wildlife trafficker by Thai police.

The international organisation’s South-East Asia senior communications officer Elizabeth John, who described the arrest as significant, said authorities must crack down on the big players driving the illegal wildlife trade.

“We hope the Thai authorities will share information with their counterparts here so that the tentacles of this criminal network in Asia are cut off,” she said.

She said tighter border controls were needed to stem the flow of the trade, “particularly from Malaysia, which is used as a transit point”.

Last Thursday, Boonchai Bach, 40, a Thai of Vietnamese descent, was arrested at his operational base in the Nakhon Phanom province.

Boonchai Bach, a Thai of Vietnamese descent and alleged kingpin of Asia’s illegal trade in endangered species, is escorted by Thai police in Bangkok after his arrest.-AFP

Boonchai, said to be one of the world’s most notorious wildlife traffickers, was held for his alleged role in the trafficking of 14 rhino horns from Africa into Thai­land in December worth about RM4mil.

Meanwhile, Malaysian wildlife authorities said they would keep close tabs on investigations by their Thai counterparts after the arrest.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim, who also commended Boonchai’s arrest, hoped it would cripple illegal smuggling of ivory and rhino horns from Africa to Asia.

“The Thai authorities will channel information to our department through Interpol if anything comes up on the network’s possible links in the country.

“This year, we will strengthen intelligence-gathering by working closely with the police and Customs, among others,” he said.

Perhilitan, he added, would also collaborate with regional and international organisations in curbing trans-national wildlife crimes.

Noting that wildlife smugglers and poachers use air, sea and land routes, Abdul Kadir said Perhilitan would bolster monitoring mechanisms at the country’s borders.

Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia director Dr Melvin Terry Gumal hoped Boonchai’s arrest would have a trickle-down effect on his network and make a dent in illegal wildlife trade in the region.

“The Thai authorities must have a water-tight case against the suspected trafficker,” he added.

Thai police showing seized elephant tusks. -Reuters

Last July, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar announced that smuggled ivory seized in 2016 worth RM80mil were crushed and destroyed here.

A recent report said Malaysia was the transit point for the smuggling of 6,695kg of African pangolin scales, seized last year, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Kota Kinabalu.

In 2001, Anson Wong, or Malay­sia’s “Lizard King” was sentenced to 71 months’ jail and fined US$60,000 (RM236,160) in the United States for trafficking in endangered reptiles.

In 2010, he was jailed five years and fined RM190,000 for trying to smuggle snakes from Penang to Jakarta, but his jail term was reduced to 17 months on appeal.

He was freed in February 2012.

 

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