Phuket elephant smugglers head to court, arrest of officials sought
Phuket Gazette -

Maj Gen Norrasak said Phuket elephant camp owners had no knowledge the registration documents were fake. Photo: Orawin Narabal

PHUKET: Two of men the involved in the elephant-smuggling operation blown open in Phuket in August will be presented in court this Thursday.

Meanwhile, officers leading the investigation will move to have arrest warrants issued for public officials involved in the trafficking ring.

“Surat Termsak and Prasong Bootchaiyaphum are scheduled to appear in Bangkok North Municipal Court on October 17,” explained Lt Nithit Kerdsri, an investigator with the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division (NREC).

Mr Surat and Mr Prasong have both confessed to conspiring with a Provincial Chief Administrative Officer in Chaiyaphum province, in Northeast Thailand, by filing false elephant registration documents for approval.

The illicit registration documents were issued for 69 elephants suspected of being trafficked across the border from Myanmar.

The high-ranking Chaiyaphum official has since retired.

“We are also going to request arrest warrants for the officers involved in the case,” Lt Nithit told the Phuket Gazette.

During the raids on seven elephant-trekking camps in Phuket, a popular attraction for tourists, officers collected blood samples for DNA tests (story here).

Work continues on establishing whether or not the elephants were trafficked or poached from the wild, or are offspring stolen from elephants registered in Thailand.

“We are still working on blood and DNA tests,” Phuket Livestock Chief Weerasit Putthipairoj told the Gazette yesterday.

“It will take at least one more month,” he said.

At this stage, none of the Phuket elephant camp owners will face legal action.

“This is not the fault of the elephant camp owners,” the NREC Commander, Pol Maj Gen Norrasak Hemnithi, told the Gazette in August.

“They did not know the registration documents they were given were fake, and the process of how those registration papers were issued was not transparent,” he said.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Phuket-elephant-smugglers-head-to-court-arrest-of-officials-sought-22492.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2013-10-12

The poor beast, most likely filled with fearful memories of relentless beatings after taken from his dead mother, pays obeisance to the cop so everyone can appreciate who the dominate animal really is.

I hope this time real sentences are going to be imposed.

It has been too long and too many times, people got away with crualty

if we could trust the same forensic detail would be used in catching criminals generally, thai jails would be overflowing

BTW I dont know that you could blow open a smuggling ring without causing a right mess.

Good work RTP. Let's hope those responsible are tried and sent to jail if found guilty. They can join the rest of the crowd in the Cross-Bar Hotel.

The poor beast, most likely filled with fearful memories of relentless beatings after taken from his dead mother, pays obeisance to the cop so everyone can appreciate who the dominate animal really is.

Say What? You were able to summarize all that from a photo? Wow! Your debt of knowledge is vast.

The poor beast, most likely filled with fearful memories of relentless beatings after taken from his dead mother, pays obeisance to the cop so everyone can appreciate who the dominate animal really is.

Say What? You were able to summarize all that from a photo? Wow! Your debt of knowledge is vast.

depth (fund) of knowledge not debt

Phuket elephant smugglers

I guess they used big trunks.

The high-ranking Chaiyaphum official has since retired.

So?