NAKHON RATCHASIMA ― Police on Monday seized a large shipment of smuggled ivory worth an estimated 20 million baht and arrested two men who tried to bribe officers with one million baht in cash.

A total of fifty nine seized ivory tusks, mostly from African elephants, were displayed at a police station in Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima on Monday after police arrested two men accused of smuggling the haul. (Photo by Prasit Tangprasert)

The tusks were found hidden in a van parked at a hotel in Muang district late in the morning and the suspects were identified as Suchart Srikaew, 35, the van’s driver, and Denchai Sriganin, 46.

A team of patrol police officers from Pho Klarng police station noticed a white Toyota van without a license plate parked outside Khok Kruat Resort in tambon Khok Kruat while going about their regular duties.



They looked through the windows of the van and found the passenger seats had been removed. In place of the seats were a large number of suspicious looking items covered by a canvas.

Officers kept the van under surveillance until Mr Suchart arrived on the scene, at which point they asked him to open the van for examination. Fifty nine pieces of ivory were found in the vehicle. National park officials estimated the tusks to be worth more than 20 million baht.

Officers said Mr Suchart offered to pay them a one-million-baht bribe. They pretended to go along with the plan and arrested Mr Denchai when he brought the cash to the hotel after being contacted by Mr Suchart.

Mr Suchart allegedly admitted that an investor paid him 30,000 baht to deliver the tusks from the Central Plains to a client in Sakon Nakhon province, where they were to be smuggled to China. Mr Denchai was allegedly offered 4,000 baht to bring the bribe money to the police.

Noppadon Prawatwilai, chief of the prevention and suppression unit at the Protected Area Administration Regional Office 7, said most of the seized items were African elephant tusks, some of which were more than two metres long, indicating that the elephants would have been up to 100 years old.

An investigation is underway to locate other suspects involved in the smuggling and the sourcing of the ivory.

The one-million-baht bribe which suspects offered to pay police officers. (Prasit Tangprasert)

Part of a large shipment of smuggled ivory worth an estimated 20 million baht. (Prasit Tangprasert)



