Yesterday afternoon Secretary General of Anti Money Laundering Organization (AMLO) of Thailand announced that his team had identified and frozen more than $ 11 million the value of assets belonging to Hydra, an international wildlife trafficking ring. As WAN previously reported, the alleged wildlife crime thief Bunchai Bach reportedly ruled Hydra in northeastern Thailand for over a decade.
According to an international non-profit organization, Freeland Foundation, which provided important background information on the goals of the syndicate, between March 11 and March 14th, officers infiltrated Nakorn Panom and Chaiyaphum provinces and seized property.
“The recent AMLO operation against Hydra, a large criminal organization, is the most positive and important news we’ve heard regarding wildlife to date. Often, criminals living in the wild continue to act uncleanly despite the efforts of law enforcement, whether they are arrested or not, ”said Steve Galster, founder of Freeland. statement. “AMLO did something completely different: they justified the activities of this syndicate by freezing and seizing their financial resources. This means that they have neither the time nor the money to order the killing of even more wild animals. This approach needs to be copied and expanded to help restore wildlife populations. ”
This month’s operation kicked off after more than a year of investigations launched following the acquittal of Bach, who was arrested by Thai police in Mt. January 2018 to transport rhino horns through Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. A year later, Bach was acquitted in another case at the Samut Prakan Criminal Court in Thailand.
TO March 2019, AMLO opened a new case against Bach and his associates, working with Freeland to put together a picture of a cross-border criminal network. Thailand has served as a major transit point for illegal wildlife trade from many countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Africa on the way to China across Laos and Vietnam. Revolving types include: tigers, lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants and lizards and others.
Several registered zoos in Thailand have been identified as a source of illegal wildlife trade across Thailand, including more recently: Mukda Tiger Park Zoo. Freeland was able to show how this trade is organized by members of the Hydra, including Bach. The assets targeted by AMLO in this operation are believed to have come from the sale of these and other species of animals from Asia and Africa.
Thailand Anti-Money Laundering Act 1999 it is a powerful tool and can be used against suspects and businesses that have earned mysterious wealth and which appear to be laundering money through a “predicate” crime that in Thailand includes environmental crime and smuggling. After a thorough investigation by AMLO, the burden of proof falls on the accused.
In the case of Hydra, suspects associated with assets that include endangered species will have 90 days explain how they accumulated what the AMLO discovered, or transfer everything to the state.
“Going forward, we will try to persuade governments to allocate some of the assets confiscated from wildlife criminals to wildlife restoration funds,” concluded Galster. “We want to empty human traffickers’ fuel tanks and support wildlife conservationists. Let’s get traders to fund wildlife conservation. “
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The message is breaking! The assets seized in Thailand during the latest bite related to the wildlife trade involving thief in law Bunchy Bach are estimated at $ 11 million first on World Animal News.