During the first ever joint wildlife crime investigation "On The Job Training" (OJT)  in Thailand's Hat Yai Province between Thai and Malay wildlife law enforcement authorities facilitated by the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), participants executed a search warrant and seized over 13kg of cut up wild meat from protected soft shell turtles and several species of lizards in a local restaurant. The Royal Thai Police officers of the Natural Resource and Environmental Crime Suppression Division (NRECD) arrested the owner of a restaurant. 

Menu billboard displaying lizard, squirrel, civet and wild bore (3rd line, translated from Thai.)
This major enforcement action displays the improvement and progress of capacity-building measures as a response to illegal cross-border wildlife trade in the ASEAN region encouraging the wildlife network, its Support Program and all related agencies and task forces to continue their great work to save the region's wildlife. It's a groundbreaking example of the increased cooperative effort between the two countries in the cross-border wildlife trafficking hot spot at the Thai-Malay border.
"This enforcement success indicates the necessity  for such trainings in all cross-border wildlife trade hot spots in our region as well as the immediate and efficient benefit to the work of ASEAN-WEN border officials. ASEAN-WEN hopes to satisfy these requirements and to further equip border officers with necessary knowledge to stop trafficking of wildlife across borders", says Dr. Chumphon Sukkasaem, Senior Officer of ASEAN-WEN.


Representatives from CITES Thailand, Department of Wildlife and National Parks Malaysia, and the Royal Thai Customs at the training
venue in Hat Yai.
The course was attended by front-line wildlife enforcement officers, who received training in advanced criminal investigation techniques and methods, including use of technology, to detect, document and stop illegal wildlife trade. Observers from Malaysia’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks attended the training, which was conducted by ASEAN-WEN's Support Program's FREELAND FOUNDATION with the support of an U.S. Forest Service Special Agent.