Thailand police smash ring smuggling endangered lemurs and turtles

The police in Thailand have reported the interception of several dozen lemurs and over 1,000 turtles, which were caught illegally and exported from Madagascar. The smugglers involved have been arrested.

Forty-eight lemurs and 1,076 radiated turtles were found in 41 crates and 11 cages across six pickups parked near a Chumphon, southern Thailand hotel. Trapped inside, the animals awaited their buyers. Videos circulating online captured the terrified lemurs clinging to one another.

Gen. Wacharin Pusit, the commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division in Thailand, revealed during a media briefing that an extensive international network of wildlife traffickers was responsible for the smuggling. He mentioned that six individuals directly involved in this operation have been detained. He also shared that following a search of a farm linked to the suspects, authorities seized 179 turtles, 30 primates, and three young crocodiles.

Gen. Wacharin's team was tipped off about a group smuggling African wildlife through Sumatra to La-ngu district in Thailand's province of Satun, close to the Malaysia border. From Satun, the animals were transported to Bangkok and then shipped to destinations like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, where they are sought after as pets and believed to bring good luck.

In Thailand, a single radiated turtle can sell for around 100,000 baht (approximately £2,300), but their value can soar to 1 million baht (£23,000) or more in Hong Kong. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists these turtles as critically endangered.

The combined efforts of the Thai Division for the Suppression of Crime Against Natural Resources and the Environment and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimate that the animals recovered from the smugglers could be worth about 2 million dollars on the black market.