Cops urged to keep eye on released wildlife trafficker

Police have been alerted after the release of Chumlong Lemthongthai, one of Asia's most notorious wildlife traffickers from a prison in South Africa.

Chumlong walked out of Kgosi Mamparu II, Pretoria Central Prison on Sept 12, according to the Oxpeckers' website, which is an investigative environmental journalism unit based in Africa.

Known as the "Rhino Kingpin", he has been in prison for six years for trafficking illegal rhino horns to Asia.

Pol Maj Gen Panya Pinsook, commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division, said there is no special order for surveillance of Chumlong, but his movements will be closely monitored due to his record of wildlife crime. "We will check whether he is involved with illegal cases in this country," he said.

In November 2012, a court sentenced him to 40 years behind bars after he confessed to involvement in the killing of as many as 70 rhinos to sell in Asia.

After Chumlong appealed for a lessened jail term, the court subsequently commuted his sentence substantially.

Chumlong, a Thai national, was also linked with the notorious Xaysavang wildlife trafficking syndicate, which disguised themselves as a hunting group, which is permitted in South Africa.

The "hunters" obtained legitimate permits from provincial conservation authorities under false pretences, along with other documents needed to satisfy the requirements of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Once the rhinos are shot, they can be butchered and the meat sold locally, while the horns can be mounted as trophies under the regulations.

However, the trophies were shipped to Asia and the horns ground into powder and sold to buyers who prize them for their supposed medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. One hundred grammes of rhino horn can fetch as much as US$2,500 in some Southeast Asian countries.

Chumlong paid 65,000 South African rand (142,184 baht) a kilogramme, for the horns and sold them for six times that amount at least, his trial heard.

Meanwhile, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation defended its performance in light of the recent report on mounting wildlife-trafficking online.

The report -- "Trading Faces a rapid assessment on the use of Facebook to trade wildlife in Thailand" -- was released on Sept 12 by the international wildlife conservation group, TRAFFIC.

The report found 1,521 live animals for sale online on 12 Facebook groups in Thailand in under a month of monitoring for just half an hour a day in 2016.