Atthaphon Bua Fai, a forestry technical officer, discovering a man named “Aon Tewarit Chaiya selling wildlife ferrets, flying squirrels and birds, through Facebook. They started to investigate and found that the Facebook owner is actually Mr. Dhevarit (assumed name) who has been selling wildlife protection for a long time out of his house in Soi Sansuk Surasak Subdistrict, Si Racha District, Chon Buri Province
On June 19th at 11.00 hrs. the staff went undercover to catch the man and collect enough evidence to make an arrest. After collecting enough evidence officers were able to get a search warrant from Chonburi Provincial
Court no. 80/2563 to search Mr. Dhevarit’s property.
The staff of the Falcon Dong Group joined the Police Staff in the area to check the property where they found 1 mongoose inside a steel cage belonging to Mr. Thewarit who was working at the time of the search, they also found many birds, ferrets, and flying squirrels.
Later, Mr. Thewarit came to the house to meet with authorities but didn’t realize they were undercover police trying to catch him in the act by buying one of the mongooses from him. After the transaction was complete, the police had enough evidence to make the arrest while the Falcon Dong Group seized and protected the wildlife.
As far as Mr. Dhevarit, Anyone “having protected wildlife in possession without the permission from the Director-General” can face imprisonment under Section 92, for at least five years and a fine of five hundred thousand baht. Also, under section 29, if you are caught “trading protected wildlife without permission from the Director-General through advertisement or online sources” you can face imprisonment for up to ten years with a fine of one million baht.
As for the animals, they will be returned to the wild and run free.
