KUALA LUMPUR: The recent arrest of Teo Boon Ching for alleged involvement in illicit wildlife trade in Thailand could subsequently engage source and transit countries to collaborate in investigating the suspect's networks in the region.
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia director Kanitha Krishnasamy today said Southeast Asia is involved in the trafficking of African ivory, rhino horns, pangolins and a host of other threatened species.
"The network behind such trafficking operations have operated with impunity for far too long. Arrests and convictions are so few and far in between.
"We hope thorough investigations are able to reveal all the parties behind this trafficking network, without which illicit operators will adapt and thrive, and continue to fuel and drive illicit wildlife trade through this region," she told New Straits Times.
Kanitha also applauded the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for apprehending Teo in Bangkok on Thursday.
Yesterday, the Bangkok Post reported that Teo, who is a Malaysian national, was arrested by the local police at a hotel in Wang Thonglang district for alleged wildlife trafficking and money-laundering offences and is due for extradition to the US.
The 58-year-old is wanted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Services and allegedly played a key role in an illegal global network of wildlife trading, especially rhinoceros horns and elephant tusks, as well as endangered African wildlife.
Teo also used his connections in Malaysia which served as a transit country to transport the illegal wildlife before repacking the products and then delivering them to other Asian countries such as Laos.
Meanwhile, Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim in a brief reply to the NST said the agency would be collaborating with their US counterparts following the arrest of Teo.
"Perhilitan will cooperate with the US agency to obtain information on the issue of Teo'" he said. Kadir said Perhilitan had been monitoring Teo's activities for for some time.