South-East Asia (Page 1,341)

Red panda, lizards and exotic birds among 87 creatures in luggage of 6 Indian travellers

Six Indian nationals have been arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport on charges of attempting to smuggle 87 wild animals, among them a red panda, out of the country.

All of the animals were on the protected list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

The discovery was made after officers noticed irregularities in some luggage X-ray results on a Thai Airways International flight to Mumbai, said Athapol Charoenshunsa, director-general of the Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP).

He was alerted by Pakhaphong Phathong, chief of the department’s wildlife checkpoint at the airport.

Security officers said that eight bags, owned by six Indian passengers, contained a range of wildlife including reptiles and mammals.

The travellers were identified as Suresh Kumar Baghel, 51; Iyer Raja Devendra, 33; Sagar Trilok Soni, 36; Sunny Ramesh Kumar Kochhar, 32; Nitish Thapar, 29; and Shanti Laxmansingh Negi, 56.

The seized wildlife included 29 lizards, including Black Throat Monitor lizards; 21 snakes including corn snakes and red bamboo snakes; 15 birds including bird-of-paradise and Alexandrine parrots; seven Bengal Monitor lizards; four iguanas; two red-eyed squirrels, a pair of cotton-top tamarins, two bats, a rat, a fishing cat, a red panda, a Sulawesi bear cuscus and some frogs.

The suspects were charged with smuggling wildlife, animal disease control and fishery violations, and customs avoidance.

The animals will be transferred to the department for recovery and rehabilitation, said Mr Athapol.

Black Throat Monitor lizards are among other wild animals seized from the travellers. (Photo: Customs Department)

A member of a major drug network was arrested and 10 million methamphetamine pills seized when police raided rented premises in a housing estate in Pathum Thani’s Thayaburi province.

A second suspect fled, evading arrest.

The arrest of Bancha Khotphuthorn, alias “Muek Sai Mai”, 37,  and seizure of the drugs was announced  during a media briefing at Pratunam Chulalongkorn police station in Pathum Thani on Wednesday.

It was also attended by Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Pol Lt Gen Jirasak Kaewsaeng-ek, commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 1.

Pol Maj Gen Chayanon Meesati, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 1, said there were two suspects in the case. The raided house was in tambon Prachathibat of Thanyaburi and was searched on Tuesday night.

The two suspects were packaging drugs for delivery to contacts in Nakhon Nayok province when police arrived. One of them escaped.

The meth pills were found inside the house and in a car, Pol Maj Gen Chayanont said.

Mr Bancha allegedly admitted to having driven a scout car, travelling ahead of the vehicle used for smuggling  drugs. Upon encountering a checkpoint, he would immediately alert the driver of the vehicle with the drugs. He was paid 5,000 baht each time and had made three trips.

Interior Minister Anutin said he was there to show his support for the arresting police. The same team from Region 1 had made arrests and seized drugs in Bang Pahan district of Ayutthaya only a few days previously. The two operations had resulted in the seizure of more than 20 million meth pills worth tens of millions of baht, Mr Anutin said.

Bancha Khotphuthorn, 37, points to bags of packaged methamphetamine after his arrest at a rented house in Pathum Thani province on Tuesday night. (Photo: DOPA Channel by the Interior Ministry’s Department of Provincial Administration)

Victim says Swiss man bumped into her at supermarket prior to assault

A Swiss retiree has been charged with assaulting a 58-year-old woman in a Trang supermarket, repeatedly punching her and breaking her nose, on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said the man is Dieter Matthias Straumann, 62.

It was reported he is in Thailand on a retirement visa and has a Thai wife and they live in a single-story house.

The victim, Natchanan Khikkham, told reporters on Wednesday that the incident began when a foreign man shoved her while they were inside the Big C store in Muang district.

She said she responded by telling him to be polite, and asked why he did it.

According to her, the man then shouted at her, and she walked away. 

Ms Natchanan said the man followed her and then he punched her more than once and walked away. She responded by throwing a water bottle at the man, but missed him.

She alleged the man walked back to her and then knocked her to the floor, pressed his knee against her neck and punched her repeatedly in the face. She called for help.

Ms Natchanan said store staff called paramedics to the scene. She was taken to Trang Hospital and treated for cuts to her face, a broken nose and swelling around her eyes and to her back.

Police detained and took the accused man to Muang Trang provincial police station, where he reportedly refused to answer any questions.

Police later charged him with physical assault causing severe injury and disobeying a lawful order in refusing to sign his name in acknowledgment of the charge and refusing to be fingerprinted.

Police used an interpreter to talk to Mr Straumann and said it took hours to persuade him to comply and then go to Trang Provincial Court for indictment.

Trang public health chief Sinchai Rongdet said the victim would need at least a month to recover.

Tourist police have informed the Swiss embassy.

The Swiss man, left, is at Muang Trang provincial police station on Tuesday. (Screenshot from TV Channel 8)

Much of the North and upper Northeast was cloaked in fine-dust smog on Wednesday, with residents advised to stay indoors.

The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency reported at 3pm  that 14 of the kingdom’s 77 provinces were blanketed with red (seriously harmful) levels of particulate matter 2.5 micrometres and less in diameter (PM2.5).

Readings ranged from 75.3 to 117.5 microgrammes per cubic metre of air over the past 24 hours. The government’s safe threshold is 37.5µg/m³.

The worst level was recorded in the northern province of Lampang. Most of the other affected provinces were in the North. They were Phrae (114.6µg/m³), Lamphun (108.7), Sukhothai (103.7), Chiang Mai (101.0), Nan (93.7), Uttaradit (92.0), Mae Hong Son (91.4), Tak (82.8), Phayao (82.6) and Phitsanulok (78.1).

In the upper Northeast, the red levels were in Loei (102.3), Nong Khai (82.9) and Nong Bua Lam Phu (75.3).

The Chiang Mai office of the Pollution Control Department advised people to stay indoors because the smog was accumulating in the stagnant air.

Twenty-two other provinces reported orange (initially harmful) levels of PM2.5. Most of them were in the lower Northeast and the central Northeast.

The Gistda map shows the North and the upper Northeast were shrouded with red levels of PM2.5 on Wednesday afternoon.