Two individuals were apprehended by police for attempting to smuggle 81 live monkeys and a quantity of class A drugs. The pair, believed to be connected to an international wildlife trafficking network, were discovered transporting numerous macaques along with methamphetamine pills and crystal meth concealed in sealed blue bags near Thailand’s border with Cambodia. Law enforcement confiscated both the drugs and the monkeys, and the suspects are set to face charges under wildlife protection and drug laws.
Photographs depicted the two men handcuffed together following their arrest by the Royal Thai Police after a vehicle interception in the Sa Kaeo province. The 12th Ranger Regiment of the Royal Thai Army revealed in a Facebook statement that they pursued the suspicious vehicle, a dark grey Toyota Revo, along Road 3383 towards a natural channel near the Cambodia border during the operation.
The vehicle traveled around 440 meters off the main road and parked near the border, where the men assisted each other in unloading the blue net bags containing the monkeys and drugs. An army officer arrived on the scene to conduct checks, but the men quickly reentered the car and drove away, abandoning a bag with several monkeys on the ground. A pursuit ensued, leading to the apprehension of the suspects by soldiers who then alerted wildlife checkpoint officials and police.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the two men were hired to smuggle the monkeys to Cambodia as part of the profitable trade in endangered animals in Southeast Asia. Macaques, which can fetch considerable sums internationally, are often transported by the same means as drug and migrant smugglers.
Earlier, rangers discovered 62 long-tailed macaques in a weakened state in plastic baskets in Thailand’s Khlong Hat District near the Cambodian border. The monkeys, consisting of 44 males and 18 females, were rescued and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center for care. Somruek Suppamitkrisana, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Division, emphasized that such incidents highlight the ongoing threat of wildlife trafficking networks in border regions, particularly for highly sought-after long-tailed macaques.