A four-month-old tiger cub was rescued after Thai police arrested three of its captors, who were planning to sell it in a parking lot in Thailand's central province of Nonthaburi.
The captors were detained on charges of possessing and trafficking endangered species. They eventually admitted to bringing the cub into the country from Laos.
Photo via Facebook (สรยุทธ สุทัศนะจินดา กรรมกรข่าว)
Authorities were already aware of a Facebook account that was posting about wildlife for sale before the arrests. With the assistance of some authorities from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation, the Royal Thai Police and the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) collaborated to investigate the incident.
Knowing they needed to catch the individual in the act, the squad claimed to be a customer looking to purchase the cub. The tiger traffickers set the price for the cub at 400,000 baht (RM50489.13) as reported by Mashable SEA.
The first half of the total cost was to be paid in advance, with the second half to be paid when the two parties met.
They convened in a parking lot of Central Westgate Mall in Nonthaburi's Bang Yai neighbourhood. Peeraphon and Phornthiwa, two of the suspects, arrived at the location to collect the money. They then brought the "buyer" to see Chatri, their accomplice in the crime, who was in the car with the cub.
When the investigation team saw the cub, they swiftly dropped the act, arresting all three men, seizing their car, and, of course, rescuing the small cub.
The suspects were brought to the Bang Yai Police station where they confessed that Chatri was the one who sourced the cub from Laos, while the other two looked for potential customers in Thailand.
The tiger cub was handed over to the Wildlife Conservation Office Thailand and will undergo DNA tests to determine its origin.
By: Aishah Ahadiat Akashah
