Officials at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok caught a tourist making an attempt to smuggle 25 unique stay birds out of Thailand on a flight to the Maldives yesterday morning, reviews KhaoSod.
Customs officers made fairly the discovery after they inspected baggage destined to board flight PG711 to Malé in the Maldives at 9.20am, reported Prasert Sornsathapornkul, the Director of the Division for the Protection of Wildlife and Wild Plants beneath the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
Stuffed inside two suitcases, officials found 25 stay birds together with black kites, buffy fish owls, and barred eagle owls – all CITES-listed species – with an estimated collective value of a hundred,000 baht.
Smuggling live wildlife out of Thailand without permission is a violation of the Wildlife Conservation and Preservation Act (2019), the Animal Epidemic Act (2015), and the Customs Act (2017).
According to the amended Wildlife Conservation and Preservation Act of 2019, trafficking CITES-listed species is a legal offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
The vacationer, a holder of a Maldivian passport, was taken to the Suvarnabhumi Airport Police Station to face prosecution.
Certified rescued wild birds were despatched to a team who takes care of the well being of untamed animals under the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for preliminary health checkups. The director didn’t say what was next for the confiscated birds.
Last month, two specially-trained Labradors from England flew to Thailand to help sniff out smuggled pangolins, which are the most trafficked animal in the world.
A wildlife trafficker was caught with two Asian black bear cubs in Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand final month, believed to have smuggled the bears across the border from Myanmar.
Thai police rescued 47 macaques final month being smuggled out of the country for probable use in conventional Chinese medication..