THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Ex-Songkhla Zoo official faces arrest for allegedly stealing rhinoceros horn

Ex-Songkhla Zoo official faces arrest for allegedly stealing rhinoceros horn

The Songkhla Provincial Court on Thursday (October 8) issued an arrest warrant for Kosin Rattanawiboon, a former official of Songkhla Zoo, for allegedly stealing a rhinoceros horn from the Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai campus, back in 2013.

“The case timeline starts on February 25, 2012 when a white rhinoceros at the zoo died and zoo officials cut its two horns, a pointed one and a blunt one and gave them to the Prince of Songkla University,” said Pol Lt-General Keerati Treewai, deputy chief of Kho Hong Police Station, who requested the arrest warrant.
“On June 11, 2018, the zoo contacted the university to ask the horns back, but the university reported that two zoo officials had already taken them back on March 21, 2013, using what appeared to be a fake documentation from the zoo.

Ex-Songkhla Zoo official faces arrest for allegedly stealing rhinoceros horn

“The zoo fired the two staff whose names appeared on the paper and filed a complaint at Kho Hong Police Station on July 3, 2018 to track down the missing horns,” added Keerati. “Officials managed to track down the blunt one that Kosin allegedly took, but the whereabouts of the pointed one are still unknown as the other official who allegedly took them died of a chronic disease."
The missing horn reportedly has an estimated value of around Bt1 million on the black market.
Songkhla Zoo has been under public scrutiny since last week when the director-general of Zoological Park Organisation of Thailand, Suriya Saengpong, was shot dead by a senior zoo official, while investigating the case of the missing rare albino barking deer. The official allegedly also shot himself later.

Related Story: Police team probing alleged crimes in Songkhla Zoo seeks wildlife records of past 10 years

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