Wildlife Traders Apprehended Following High Speed Car Chase
$April 1, 2009
Originally Published by Wildlife Alliance
Battambang, March 30, 2009- The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT) rescued 150 live animals from wildlife traders in Pursat Province in Cambodia, following a high-speed car chase on March 30, 2009. The shipment, weighing 381 kgs, included 47 endangered Yellow-headed Temple Turtles (Heosemys annandalii), 1 Asiatic Softshell Turtle (Amyda cartilaginea, "Vulnerable" status), 2 Burmese Pythons (Python molurus bivittatus, "Threatened" status) and other vulnerable, threatened and endangered species. 
When the WRRT attempted to get ahead of the suspect's vehicle in order to stop him, the trader crashed sideways into the WRRT vehicle and drove away at high speed. As the WRRT continued its pursuit, the suspect repeatedly blocked their attempts to stop his vehicle. The WRRT then called the Kampong Chhnang gendarmes for assistance, and the Pursat provincial gendarmes erected a road block on a provincial bridge. The pursuit continued toward the roadblock, at which point the suspect crashed into the Pursat gendarme's vehicle at high speed, causing the front tires of the trader’s car and one tire on the police vehicle to explode. The WRRT’s vehicle crashed into the handrails of the bridge after braking hard to avoid crashing into the gendarme's vehicle. The WRRT vehicle sustained damage; however, none of the WRRT members or gendarmes were injured. 
The trader, a 44-year-old male from Banteay Meanchey province, and two accomplices, a 35-year-old female from Banteay Meanchey province and a 46-year-old male from Takeo province, ran from their vehicle but were successfully apprehended by a WRRT law enforcement officer, arrested and taken into custody. The trader's vehicle and all wildlife were taken to the gendarmes' headquarters in Pursat Province as evidence. Wildlife that are uninjured will be released back into their natural habitats after wildlife rescue and rehabilitation specialists from our Care for Rescued Wildlife program assess the animals' health. "Yellow-headed temple turtles are depicted in Angkorian temples as divine creatures of royalty in Cambodia," according to Wildlife Alliance's U.S. Director of Operations, Michael Zwirn. "The fact that this species is now endangered means we must work even harder to protect wild populations and preserve their habitat." The yellow-headed temple turtle is one of the species that are ritually released into ponds near new Buddhist temples, hence the common name 'temple turtle.' Cambodia's wildlife are imperiled by a massive illegal trade whose trafficking links extend to national parks and protected areas along major road and sea links to Vietnam, Thailand, and ultimately China. The area along the Cambodian-Thai border is a known hotbed for turtle smuggling, as evidenced by a large number of rescues by the WRRT in past years, including a WRRT bust of reptile smugglers in nearby Battambang province in April 2008. Since 2000, Wildlife Note: High resolution images of the WRRT bust are available upon request. |
The WRRT, composed of law enforcement officers from the Forestry Administration and the Royal Gendarmerie (Military Police) of Cambodia and operating with support from Wildlife Alliance, received information about a suspected wildlife trader driving along National Road 5 from Poipet (on the Cambodian-Thai border in Banteay Meanchey Province) in the direction of Phnom Penh. The WRRT spotted the suspect's car approximately 20km from Kampong Chhnang driving in the opposite direction, at which point they turned around to pursue the trader's car.
