RATCHABURI: A suspected major online wildlife trader has been arrested and items including pelts of wild tigers and leopard cats, barking deer antlers and animal bones seized during a raid on a house in Pak Tho district.
Wildlife officials set up a sting operation to arrest a man named Thanasit, alleged to be a major wildlife trader on Facebook, Mongkhol Chaipakdi, chief of the Phaya Sua task force, said yesterday.
He did not disclose the man's full name, but Thai-language media identified the wildlife trader as Thanasit Sripatchim.
An official was assigned to buy leopard pelts from the trader.
When Mr Thanasit showed up with six boxes containing wildlife parts at a parcel service depot in Ratchaburi, wildlife officials led by the Phaya Sua task force, also turned up and arrested him.
A search of his house led to the seizure of pelts, antlers and other parts of 30 kinds of wildlife. They included two leopard cat pelts, 189 Malayan porcupine skins, 20 barking deer antlers, pelts of wild tigers and six stingray tails.
In a post on its Facebook page, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation's PR team valued the seized items at 124,620 baht, but did not say how it calculated such a precise figure.
Mr Thanasit was charged with illegal possession of protected wildlife, which carries a prison term of up to five years in jail and/or a fine of up to 500,000 baht, and with illegal trading in wildlife, which carries a prison term of up to 10 years and/or a fine of up to one million baht.
If found to have committed a more serious offence against protected wildlife in a reserve, an offender faces up to 15 years in jail and/or a fine of up to 1.5 million baht.
Mr Thanasit was later handed over to police at Thung Luang station in Pak Tho district for further legal action.