While Thailand has long had an unfortunate reputation for illegal wildlife trafficking, one Thai policeman has dedicated years to fighting the problem.
Kiattipong: Received award at Cites
Former Surat Thani police chief Kiattipong Khaosamang has relentlessly pursued wildlife traffickers since 2008, earning him recognition from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).
Cites, which is meeting in Bangkok until Thursday, awarded Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong the "Clark R Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award 2013" for his efforts.
When Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong assumed the role of deputy commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division five years ago, he started to collate the details from each crackdown on wildlife smugglers.
With this, he developed an extensive knowledge bank on such illicit networks.
This approach has helped him to bust numerous domestic and international wildlife trafficking networks in Thailand.
One of his biggest busts came in October, when Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong led a team to storm a warehouse in Ayutthaya.
Inside, they found and seized the carcasses of thousands of animals, including snakes, pangolins, soft-shelled turtles and serows. They also arrested a number of suspects in the raid, which followed three months of intense investigations.
Police believed about 1.2 tonnes of animal carcasses and parts were being sent out of the warehouse every week to black markets both at home and abroad.
Despite the success of the Ayutthaya bust, Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong believes scores of similar warehouses abound.
Another major feather in Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong's cap was the 2011 arrest of a foreigner and seizure of live wild animals at Suvarnabhumi airport.
Acting on a tip-off that traffickers were attempting to smuggle animals out of Thailand and into Dubai, Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong and a tourist police team pounced on United Arab Emirates national Noor Mahmood on May 13, 2011, as he awaited boarding.
Police searched his luggage and found he was carrying a leopard cub and a panther cub. The officials also found a juvenile leopard, panther, bear, gibbon and marmoset hidden in an airport restroom.
The animals were unconscious, having been drugged with sleeping pills.
The suspect told the police he knew nothing about the animals, saying he had been approached by another man who asked him to hold the luggage while he went to the toilet.
Mr Mahmood was charged with violating the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act 1992, which carries a maximum punishment of four years in jail and a 40,000-baht fine.
Mr Mahmood was granted bail with a US$6,000 (178,000 baht) bond but he later fled the country.
Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong said the international wildlife trafficking network is complex and wide-reaching and he believes influential figures involved in the trade helped Mr Mahmood escape.
He said a major contributor to Thailand's wildlife trafficking problem is that the punishments for such offences here are not as tough as in most other countries.
Most people convicted of wildlife crimes merely end up paying fines, Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong said.
Such light punishment encourages smugglers to use Thailand as a wildlife stockpile hub before the animals are moved on to other countries, he added.
"Sellers have also adjusted their sales practice from selling animals openly in the market to only showing pictures," he said, referred to traders in Chatuchak Weekend Market's pet zone. "The pick-up will be organised later.
"Trade is also conducted on the internet, which makes efforts to stop it even harder."
He said police often focus only on arresting individuals and fail to establish the links in the smuggling networks.
"I approach my investigation in a similar way to how drugs cases are investigated, because both networks have a similar structure," Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong said.
He said Thailand did not take wildlife trafficking seriously despite it being the third-worst crime in terms of economic losses to the country, behind only drugs and the arms trade.
Pol Maj Gen Kiattipong wants to see punishments increased, otherwise the situation will not improve.
For now, he is happy that wildlife smuggling cases have been placed under the Money Laundering Control Act, which allows authorities to freeze suspects' assets.
This greatly aids the work of those seeking to crack down on trafficking networks, he said.
Contact Crime Track: crimetrack@bangkokpost.co.th