BANGKOK // Squealing tiger cubs stuffed into carry-on bags. Luggage packed with hundreds of squirming tortoises, elephant tusks, even water dragons and American paddlefish.
Workers at Thailand's gateway airport proudly tick off the illegally trafficked wildlife they have seized over the past two years.
But Thai and foreign law enforcement officers tell the other side of the story: officials working hand-in-hand with the traffickers ensure that other shipments through Suvarnabhumi International Airport are whisked off before they even reach customs inspection.
It is a murky mix. A ten-fold increase in wildlife law enforcement actions, including seizures, has been reported in the past six years in South East Asia. Yet, the trade's big shots, masters of taking advantage of pervasive corruption, appear immune to arrest and continue to orchestrate the destruction of wildlife in Thailand, the region and beyond.
The region's honest cops do not have it easy.
"It is very difficult for me. I have to sit among people who are both good and some who are corrupt," said Chanvut Vajrabukka, a retired police general.
"If I say, 'you have to go out and arrest that target', some in the room may well warn them," said Mr Chanvut, who now advises Asean-Wen, the regional wildlife enforcement network.
Several kingpins, said the wildlife activist Steven Galster, had recently been confronted by authorities. "But in the end, good uniforms are running into, and often stopped by bad uniforms. It's like a bad Hollywood cop movie."
"Most high-level traffickers remain untouched and continue to replace arrested underlings with new ones," said Mr Galster, who works for the Freeland Foundation, an anti-trafficking group.
Mr Galster, who earlier worked undercover in Asia and elsewhere, heaps praise on the region's dedicated, honest officers because they persevere knowing they could be sidelined for their efforts.
Recently, Lt Col Adtaphon Sudsai, a highly regarded, outspoken officer, was instructed to lay off what had seemed an open-and-shut case he cracked when four years ago he penetrated a gang along the Mekong River smuggling pangolin, a nocturnal anteater.
This led him to Daoreung Chaimas, alleged by conservation groups to be one of South-East Asia's biggest tiger dealers. Despite being arrested twice, having her own assistants testify against her and DNA testing showing two cubs were not offspring from zoo-bred parents as she had claimed, Ms Daoreung remains free and the case may never go to the prosecutor's office.
"Her husband has been exercising his influence," said Lt Col Adtaphon, referring to her police officer spouse. "It seems that no policeman wants to get involved with this case." The day the officer went to arrest her the second time, his transfer to another post was announced.
"Maybe it was a coincidence," he said.
In another common type of case, a former police officer who tried to clamp down on traders at Bangkok's vast Chatuchak Market, had a visit from a senior police general who told him to "chill it or get removed".
"I admit that in many cases I cannot move against the big guys," Mr Chanvut, the retired general, noted. "The syndicates, like all organised crime, are built like a pyramid. We can capture the small guys but at the top they have money, the best lawyers, protection. What are we going to do?"
Mr Chanvut's problems are shared by others in South East Asia, the prime funnel for wildlife destined for China, the world's primary consumer, where many animal parts are consumed in the belief they have medicinal or aphrodisiacal properties.
Vietnam was singled out last month by the World Wide Fund for Nature as the top destination country for the highly prized rhino horn.
Tens of thousands of birds, mostly parrots and cockatoos plucked from the wild, are being imported from the Solomon Islands into Singapore, often touted as one of Asia's least corrupt nations, in violation of Cites, the international convention on wildlife trade.
According to Traffic, the international body monitoring wildlife trade, the imported birds are listed as captive-bred, even though it was widely known that the Pacific Ocean islands have virtually no breeding facilities.
Laos, meanwhile, continues to harbour Vixay Keosavang who has been linked by the South African media to a rhino smuggling ring.
The 54-year-old former soldier and provincial official reportedly has close ties to senior government figures in Laos and Vietnam.
Thai and foreign enforcement agents, who insist on anonymity s most work undercover, have said they have accumulated unprecedented details about the gangs, which are increasingly linked to drug and human-trafficking syndicates.
They claim a key Thai smuggler, who runs a shipping company, has a number of law enforcement officers in his pocket, allowing him to traffic rhino horns, ivory and tiger parts to China. He frequently entertains his facilitators at a restaurant in his office building.
According to the agents, Chinese buyers, informed of incoming shipments, fly down to Bangkok, staying at hotels pinpointed by the agents around the Chatuchak Market, where endangered species are openly sold.
There they seal deals with middlemen and freight operators.
The sources say that when they report such investigations, seizures are either made for public relations, sink into a "black hole" or the information is leaked to the wrongdoers.
Such a tip-off from someone at Bangkok airport customs allowed a trafficker to abort shipment of a live giraffe with powdered rhino horn believed to be implanted inside it.
"The 100,000 passengers moving through this airport from around the world every day are oblivious to the fact that they are standing in one of the world's hottest wildlife trafficking zones," said Mr Galster.
Officials interviewed at the airport, one of Asia's busiest, acknowledged that corruption existed, but downplayed its extent and said measures were being taken to root it out.
Mr Chanvut said corruption was not the sole culprit, pointing out the many agencies that often do not cooperate or share information. The police, national parks department, customs, immigration, the military and Cites each have a role to play at Bangkok's airport.
With poor communication between police and immigration, for example, a trader whose passport has been seized at the airport can obtain a forged one and slip across a land border a few days later.
"The bottom line is that if wildlife traffickers are not treated as serious criminals in South East Asia we are just going to lose more wildlife," said Chris Shepherd, Traffic'sdeputy director in the region. "How often is anyone arrested? They just run off, they must be the fastest people on Earth."
Chalida Phungravee, who heads the cargo customs bureau at Suvarnabhumi, said the sheer scale makes her job difficult. The airport each year handles 45 million passengers and 3 million tonnes of cargo, of which about 3 per cent is X-rayed on arrival. The main customs warehouse is the size of more than two dozen football pitches.
But seizures are made, she said, including boxes of tusks - the remnants of some 50 felled elephants - aboard a recent Kenya Airlines flight, declared as handicrafts and addressed to a fake company.
"We have cut down a lot on corruption. It still exists but remains minimal," she said, citing recent computerisation that has created a space - dubbed "the Green Line" - between customs officials, cargo and traffickers.
Mr Galster said that unlike in the past, traffickers are no longer guaranteed safe passage, describing a daily battle at Suvarnabhumi with "undercover officers monitoring corrupt ones and smugglers trying to outwit them all".
He said such increased enforcement efforts in the region have slowed the decline of endangered species "but there is still a crash going on. If corruption is not tackled soon, you can say goodbye to Asia's tigers, elephants and a whole host of other animals".
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The Greatest Royal Rumble card as it stands
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight Championship AJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Chris Jericho
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v tba
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
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Company%20Profile
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Race card
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,200m.
2.15pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,200m.
2.45pm: Handicap Dh95,000 1,200m.
3.15pm: Handicap Dh120,000 1,400m.
3.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,400m.
4.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,800m.
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,950m.
The National selections:
1.45pm: Galaxy Road – So Hi Speed
2.15pm: Majestic Thunder – Daltrey
2.45pm: Call To War – Taamol
3.15pm: Eqtiraan - Bochart
3.45pm: Kidd Malibu – Initial
4.15pm: Arroway – Arch Gold
4.35pm: Compliance - Muqaatil
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 258hp at 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.4L/100km
Price, base: from D215,000 (Dh230,000 as tested)
On sale: now
Honeymoonish
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Read more from Kareem Shaheen
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
THE SCORES
Ireland 125 all out
(20 overs; Stirling 72, Mustafa 4-18)
UAE 125 for 5
(17 overs, Mustafa 39, D’Silva 29, Usman 29)
UAE won by five wickets