‘It’s like catching one of the Corleones’: Thai police arrest wildlife trafficking kingpin
Bach brothers have allegedly run an international supply chain sending endangered wildlife to major dealers in Laos, Vietnam and China
Police in Thailand have arrested one of the world’s most notorious wildlife traffickers, allegedly involved in the smuggling thousands of tonnes of elephant tusks and rhino horns from Africa to Asia.
Boonchai Bach, who goes by multiple aliases including Bach Mai Limh, was arrested at his operational base in the north-eastern province of Nakhon Phanom, next to the Mekong River on Thursday.
Authorities are holding him in relation to the alleged trafficking of 14 rhino horns from Africa into Thailand in December.
Steven Galster, founder of the Bangkok-based anti-trafficking organisation Freeland, said the arrest was historic. “It is like catching one of the Corleones,” he said, referring to the fictional mafia family.
Named for the first time in a 2016 investigation by The Guardian, Boonchai Bach and his older brother Bach Van Limh were identified as likely key smugglers operating a criminal syndicate partly responsible for devastating the populations of endangered animals.
They have been directly responsible for financing the poaching and logistical movement of massive numbers of endangered species for many years
Freeland had been tracking the siblings since 2003, collecting evidence on their operations, which included moving tiger bones across borders and has been linked to several infamous traffickers.