Police pick-up perpetrator of pangolins plot
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Army and administrative officials in Chumphon's Pathiu district seized 70 pangolins - worth Bt5 million - from a Thai smuggler early yesterday morning.
The suspect, Artit Nuadla, 35, claimed he had been hired by a Malaysian man to smuggle the ant-eater-type mammals from Songkhla’s Hat Yai district to Samut Songkhram province at Bt6,000 per trip. He reportedly confessed to have made 9 to 10 such trips a month and was accommodated by police officers at checkpoints. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation officials were later contacted to take over the smuggled pangolins.
