Customs officials have seized a total of 2.9 tonnes of pangolin scales found in two shipments transiting Suvarnabhumi airport in December last year, department chief Kulit Sombatsiri revealed yesterday.
Both shipments, estimated to have a local value of about 29 million baht, were on flights originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and which were headed for Vientiane, Laos.
Officials believe the final destination was either Vietnam or China, or both.
The first seizure occurred on Dec 4 last year and the other on Dec 23, in cooperation with the International Consortium on Combatting Wildlife Crime (ICCW), Mr Kulit said.
The ICCW is an initiative in which 55 nations have joined forces to counter wildlife crime.
The initiative is being pushed by five international organisations -- Interpol, the World Customs Organisation, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the World Bank.
The value of the two hauls could have risen to more than 100 million baht if they had been smuggled on from Laos to China or Vietnam where pangolin scales are in demand.
The scales are often used in traditional medicine as an aphrodisiac and to improve longevity.
In the first seizure on Dec 4, officials seized 34 packages, weighing 1.7 tonnes on a flight from Kinshasa which had transited in Turkey before reaching Thailand, Mr Kulit said.
The scales were discovered when the packages were X-rayed at Suvarnabhumi airport, he said.
On Dec 23, a further 24 packages containing 1.2 tonnes of scales were discovered, he said.
Since 2012, the Customs Department has intercepted nine pangolin scale shipments with a combined weight of 3.4 tonnes, according to Mr Kulit. All shipments originated in Africa and transited through Turkey before reaching Thailand.