WILDLIFE
Asia’s Biggest Wildlife Traffickers
(BANGKOK) — Squealing tiger cubs stuffed into carry-on bags. Luggage packed with hundreds of squirming tortoises, elephant tusks, even water dragons and American paddlefish. Officials at Thailand‘s gateway airport proudly tick off the illegally trafficked wildlife they have seized over the past two years.
But Thai and foreign law enforcement officers tell another story: Officials working-hand-in-hand with traffickers ensure that other shipments through Suvarnabhumi International Airport are whisked off before they even reach customs inspection.
It’s a murky mix. A 10-fold increase in wildlife law enforcement actions, including seizures, has been reported in the past six years in Southeast Asia. Yet, the trade’s Mr.Bigs, masterful in taking advantage of pervasive corruption, appearimmune to arrest and continue to orchestrate the de cimation of wildlife in Thailand, the region and beyond.
And Southeast Asia’s honest cops don’t have it easy
“It is very difficult for me. I have to sit among people who are both good and some who are corrupt, says Chanvut Vajrabukka, a retired police general. “If I say, ‘You have to go out and arrest that target,’ some in the room may well warn them,’” says Chanvut, who now advises ASEAN-WEN, the regional wildlife enforcement network.
Several kingpins, says wildlife activist Steven Galster, have recently been confronted by authorities, “but in the end, good uniforms are running into, and often stopped by bad uniforms. It’s like a bad Hollywood cop movie.
“Most high-level traffickers remain untouched and continue to replace arrested underlings with new ones,” says Galster, who works for the FREELAND Foundation, an anti-trafficking group.
August 15, 2012 / www.time.com
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