RATCHABURI - Police have saved 217 pangolins found hidden in a truck and on the way from southern Thailand to restaurants and traditional medicine shops abroad.
Provincial Region 7 police ordered a 10-wheeler on Phetkasem Road to pull over in Muang district in Ratchaburi on Thursday night for a check and found the endangered scaley anteaters in the back.
Driver Kiattisak Waifuk told police he was told to transport the pangolins from Hat Yai district in Songkhla to a buyer in Nakhon Pathom, who would then take them out of the country, Pol Maj gen Anupab Srinuan said on Friday.
Details of the suspected traffickers in Hat Yai and Nakhon Pathom, as well as the final destination, were not released. Police hoped to to catch them, using information from Mr Kiattisak and Marut Chanthavetin, his companion in the lorry.
The 217 animals could be worth up to 2 million baht when they reach customers, police said.
Mr Kiattisak and Mr Marut were charged with possessing and trafficking an endangered species, punishable by a fine up to 40,000 baht and/or a jail term of four years on each count.
Pangolins from Thailand normally go through neighbouring Laos and end up as specialty dishes and used in medicines in Vietnam and China.
The seizure operation on Friday started on Nov 16, when police found 140 pangolins in a truck which hit a pedestrian bridge in Thap Sakae district in Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Driver Natthawut Kaewcharoen told police there was another delivery coming from Songkhla province.
The pangolins found in Ratchaburi were sent to the Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Sanctuary in Chom Bung district on Friday before being released to their natural habitat.
Increasing Chinese demand for the pangolin, a scale-covered anteater, is forcing the endangered animals closer to extinction, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
Pangolin fetuses, scales, and blood are used in traditional medicine and the meat is considered a delicacy.