An elephant owner who claims one of his herd was stolen from him and sold to a safari park in Phuket suspects fake identification papers were used in the animal's sale.
Somsak Riang-ngern, a Surin native who travelled to Phuket to trace the whereabouts of Phang Yo, his elephant that went missing in January 2003, said Phang Yo was stolen by a criminal gang that specialises in the theft and sale of elephants using fake ID papers.
He said the gang has been forging papers for a long time, selling the documents for 15,000 baht to 100,000 baht each.
The fake papers were also submitted to authorities to register or re-register elephants.
He said the gang steals elephants and uses fake papers to change their identity.
The illegal practice has earned the gang huge profits, sometimes as much as a million baht per elephant, according to Mr Somsak.
The gang goes as far as producing fake microchips to be implanted in the elephants, which is a form of identity fraud.
However, Mr Somsak said fraud is harder to commit these days because of the availability of DNA testing.
Mr Somsak earlier went to Phuket with his family to negotiate with the operator of the Amazing Bukit Safari in tambon Chalong, in Phuket's Muang district, to return Phang Yo, a pregnant elephant kidnapped 14 years ago when it was left in the woods to give birth.
According to Mr Somsak, Phang Yo went missing in January 2003 when they were working at the Elephant Home in Krabi's Muang district.
At that time, the Riang-ngern family brought seven elephants including Phang Yo to work at elephant camps in Phuket, Phangnga and Krabi.
Mr Somsak said around the time Phang Yo was pregnant, he tied her to a tree in the woods in case she gave birth. When he returned one morning, the elephant was missing.
A complaint was lodged with the Muang district police in Krabi.
The park operator, however, has insisted that the elephant, which is being kept at the park, is not Phang Yo.
It is a male elephant called "Nam Phet" which was bought for 1.4 million baht, the operator claims.