81 monkeys and meth found in car driven by suspected wildlife smugglers, rangers in Thailand say

Courtesy: CBS

Thai rangers have arrested two men suspected of being part of an international wildlife smuggling network, the military said Saturday after they were intercepted in a car carrying 81 macaques near the Cambodian border.

Thailand is a major transit hub for wildlife smugglers, who often sell highly-prized endangered creatures on the lucrative black market in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

A patrol stopped the vehicle on Friday afternoon in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province, where troops found the monkeys stuffed into blue net bags.

“At 3:20 pm, authorities arrested the two suspects and inspected their vehicle,” the 12th Ranger Forces Regiment, which is responsible for the area, said in a statement on Facebook.

The soldiers also seized methamphetamine pills and crystal meth, though no quantities were specified.

During questioning, the men admitted they were involved in a cross-border trafficking ring moving macaques from Thailand into Cambodia, the military said in a Facebook post.

Troops were working with police to pursue charges under wildlife-protection and narcotics laws.

Last year, Thailand sent almost 1,000 highly endangered lemurs and tortoises back to their home in Madagascar, after both countries’ biggest operation against wildlife trafficking.

In June, Indian customs officers seized nearly 100 creatures including lizards, sunbirds and tree-climbing possums, from a passenger arriving from Thailand. Wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC, which battles the smuggling of wild animals, said at the time that more than 7,000 animals, dead and alive, had been seized along the Thailand-India air route in the last 3-and-a-half years.

In May, Thai police arrested a man suspected of smuggling two baby orangutans into the kingdom. That operation was supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement. A 47-year-old was arrested at a Bangkok gas station as he prepared to hand over the animals to a buyer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife said at the time.

Last year, Thai customs officials arrested six Indians for attempting to smuggle a red panda and 86 other animals out of the kingdom, including snakes, parrots and monitor lizards.