Guest guest Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 Tuesday June 27, 2006-The Star Thais thwart bid to smuggle animals from Penang *PETALING JAYA:* Thai authorities thwarted another attempt at wildlife smuggling when they seized a cargo of pangolins and freshwater turtles that arrived at Bangkok airport from Penang yesterday morning. The shipment, from a Thai Airways flight, included 245 pangolins, 63 black marsh turtles (*Siebenrockiella crassicollis*) and one Malayan snail-eating turtle (*Malayemys subtrijuga*). All three species are protected under Appendix II of the Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) but the shipment of 60 crates did not have any CITES documents or permits. Instead, the manifest accompanying the cargo, which weighed in at 1,890kg, was labelled as red-eared sliders, the green-coloured turtle from North America that is unprotected and widely sold as pets in Malaysia. " This is clearly an attempt to smuggle CITES species, " said James Compton, regional director of wildlife trade monitoring programme TRAFFIC South-East Asia, in a telephone interview. Thai authorities had acted on a tip-off and officials from the customs, police, wildlife, fisheries and airport agencies were at the airport yesterday to check the shipment. Compton, who was also at the airport, revealed that a Thai national who came to receive the cargo had been detained for questioning while the Penang shipper, whose name was on the manifest, would also be investigated. He said Thai authorities have yet to ascertain if the animals had been harvested in Peninsular Malaysia or Indonesia, and believe that the cargo was on transit in Bangkok and was most likely heading for Laos. There has been in a surge in seizures of smuggled pangolins, in both Thailand and Malaysia, but their movement had always been by road. Yesterday's seizure was the first time that pangolins have been detected smuggled by air, triggering concern that smugglers have found a new route to avoid detection. Thailand protects all three species but in Malaysia, only pangolins are safeguarded under the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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