Brothers arrested over elephant slaughter
Examination of Remington bullets taken from elephants slain by poachers in Phetchburi's Kaeng Krachan National Park earlier this year has led to the arrest of two brothers at their homes in Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Weerapong Thoum-sub, 25, and his brother Sanya Thoum-sub, 37, were arrested at their homes in Huai Sat Yai sub-district by a team of police and Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation officials yesterday morning. They have denied any wrongdoing.
The brothers are suspected of killing two female elephants at the park’s Pateng Forest near Karang 3 Reservoir, and harvesting their tusks and sexual organs to be sold later. The brothers are reportedly relatives of a man, identified only as “Lee”, who was evicted from his home near the reservoir.
Police investigators seized and examined some 100 guns and concluded that the bullets found in the elephant carcasses came from a .22 Remington hunting rifle, the brand the brothers are known to own. Police also have a witness’s testimony that the two brothers shot the elephants.
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