Pangolin Seizure Reveals Malaysia — Thailand Smuggling Route

Pangolin Seizure Reveals Malaysia — Thailand Smuggling Route

Wildlife authorities arrested two men and seized 18 pangolins from a vehicle near a protected area in the northern state of Perak in Peninsular Malaysia on Saturday.

The seizure and arrests were made along the East-West highway that divides the Belum Royal State Park from the Temengor Forest Reserve and is the second to take place in this area in the last six months.

In November last year, authorities found 12 pangolins in the boot of a car belonging to two local villagers travelling along the same highway, headed towards the Malaysia-Thailand border.

In Saturday’s incident, officers from the Perak State Wildlife and National Parks Department in Ipoh and Gerik were on patrol along the highway in the early hours of the morning when they were overtaken by a vehicle.

The officers gave chase after one of them recognized the vehicle’s registration number as that belonging to a known poacher.

Officers finally apprehended those in the car at a petrol station near Gerik. The pangolins were found tied up in bags in the boot of the car. A 13-year-old boy found in the car was released.

Though small-scale, the seizure and arrests are significant in light of the trafficking routes between northern Malaysia and southern Thailand.

Reports of seizures show that at least 445 pangolins have been confiscated from traffickers in the northern states of Malaysia since February 2010. In total at least 1,800 pangolins have been seized throughout the country in that period.

“It’s great to see enforcement stepping up efforts around protected areas and even better that the case resulted in arrests,” said TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Senior Programme Officer Kanitha Krishnasamy.

Posted by George Daniels on Saturday March 24 2012, 3:24 AM EST. Ref: TRAFFIC. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0