The Thai police have arrested the alleged kingpin of Asia’s biggest illegal wildlife trading network, accusing him of smuggling protected animal parts like rhino horns and elephant ivory.

Boonchai Bach, 40, a Thai of Vietnamese origin, was detained on Friday in Nakorn Panom, a town next to the Mekong River on the border with Laos, for his alleged involvement in trafficking 14 rhino horns worth about £ 700,000 from Thailand to Africa in December.

The police claim he is the “ringleader” of a “major smuggling syndicate” that has been trading in illicit animal parts for over a decade. He faces up to four years in jail if convicted.

Mr Bach’s arrest has been hailed as a breakthrough in dismantling the world’s fourth most lucrative black market industry after drugs, people and arms smuggling – worth £17.5bn a year.

He and his family are suspected of being major players in an international supply chain selling poached animal parts from elephants, rhinos, pangolins, tigers and lions to dealers in Laos, Vietnam and China.

One of Mr Bach’s clients is believed to be Vixay Keosavang, who is reportedly Southeast Asia’s biggest wildlife dealer. The illicit network of regional traffickers has been dubbed “Hydra” by the authorities and animal rights activists.