Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tonnes of reptiles seized at border
Friday, 04 December 2009 15:04 Kim Yuthana and Mom Kunthear
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POLICE have seized nearly 2 tonnes of wild tortoises and snakes they believe were destined to have been smuggled into Vietnam, Kandal authorities said on Thursday.
The animals were seized on Wednesday near the Chhrey Thom border checkpoint, said Kandal province Police Chief Eav Chamroeun, who called the find the biggest single case of animal smuggling provincial officials had ever seen.
It is believed the alleged smugglers brought the reptiles from around the Tonle Sap River and intended to ship them by boat to the neighbouring country. Eav Chamroeun said police have arrested two men caught driving the boat.
The catch included a shipment of elongated tortoises, which are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, according to Lesley Perlman, programme manager for the group Wildlife Alliance.
Former prosecutor Huot Hy said that being convicted of smuggling endangered animals is punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
The seized animals have since been released at a “secret location”, said Prum Nol, an official with the Forestry Administration’s Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team.
E-mail Print PDF
POLICE have seized nearly 2 tonnes of wild tortoises and snakes they believe were destined to have been smuggled into Vietnam, Kandal authorities said on Thursday.
The animals were seized on Wednesday near the Chhrey Thom border checkpoint, said Kandal province Police Chief Eav Chamroeun, who called the find the biggest single case of animal smuggling provincial officials had ever seen.
It is believed the alleged smugglers brought the reptiles from around the Tonle Sap River and intended to ship them by boat to the neighbouring country. Eav Chamroeun said police have arrested two men caught driving the boat.
The catch included a shipment of elongated tortoises, which are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, according to Lesley Perlman, programme manager for the group Wildlife Alliance.
Former prosecutor Huot Hy said that being convicted of smuggling endangered animals is punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
The seized animals have since been released at a “secret location”, said Prum Nol, an official with the Forestry Administration’s Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Ecstasy Factories Destroyed in Cambodian Rainforests
An antidrug task force led by Wildlife Alliance and Fauna and Flora International, working in close concert with forest rangers from Cambodia’s armed services and Ministry of Environment completed an arduous 10 day anti-ecstasy production operation on Wednesday, successfully destroying 10 illegal safrole distillation vats operated by local drug cartels in one of Cambodia’s most impenetrable and remote jungle areas in the country’s southwest Cardamom Mountains.
The distillation vats destroyed at the various jungle sites were capable of producing over 540 gallons of safrole oil, a key precursor ingredient to the methamphetamine drug MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy. After being distilled and synthesized into powder the oil could potentially have produced thousands of ecstasy pills with street values well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A Wildlife Alliance sponsored ranger team from Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment and managed by Fauna and Flora International, came across the ecstasy labs several months earlier during a routine foot patrol through Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary 200 miles northwest of Phnom Penh.
Further aerial patrols and ground missions confirmed an extensive network of drug distilleries prompting a three month investigation in preparation for the two week long jungle operation to raid the ecstasy producing drug labs.
Wildlife Alliance Technical Advisor and former French Legionnaire, Eduard Lefter, along with counterparts from Fauna and Flora International, helped plan the complex and dangerous raid with Cambodian Forest Rangers. According to Lefter the team spent over 10 days in the jungle battling leeches and the resulting wound infections, as well as skirting landmines which made forward progress extremely difficult. By the end of the mission several members of the joint task force were suffering from dehydration due to dwindling water supplies. Navigation using GPS units proved very unreliable when confronted with the difficult jungle terrain and resulted in prolonged delays without water or food access.
The teams also carried explosive ordnance in the form of landmines, provided by the Cambodian Military, to destroy the ecstasy labs and safrole distillation equipment.
The distillation vats destroyed at the various jungle sites were capable of producing over 540 gallons of safrole oil, a key precursor ingredient to the methamphetamine drug MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy. After being distilled and synthesized into powder the oil could potentially have produced thousands of ecstasy pills with street values well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A Wildlife Alliance sponsored ranger team from Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment and managed by Fauna and Flora International, came across the ecstasy labs several months earlier during a routine foot patrol through Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary 200 miles northwest of Phnom Penh.
Further aerial patrols and ground missions confirmed an extensive network of drug distilleries prompting a three month investigation in preparation for the two week long jungle operation to raid the ecstasy producing drug labs.
Wildlife Alliance Technical Advisor and former French Legionnaire, Eduard Lefter, along with counterparts from Fauna and Flora International, helped plan the complex and dangerous raid with Cambodian Forest Rangers. According to Lefter the team spent over 10 days in the jungle battling leeches and the resulting wound infections, as well as skirting landmines which made forward progress extremely difficult. By the end of the mission several members of the joint task force were suffering from dehydration due to dwindling water supplies. Navigation using GPS units proved very unreliable when confronted with the difficult jungle terrain and resulted in prolonged delays without water or food access.
The teams also carried explosive ordnance in the form of landmines, provided by the Cambodian Military, to destroy the ecstasy labs and safrole distillation equipment.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sneak Preview of "100 Heartbeats" Jeff Corwin and Wildlife Alliance in Cambodia - Watch it Nov 22nd
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Labels:
cambodia,
illegal logging,
Jeff Corwin,
wildlife alliance
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Ecotourism in the Cardamoms
Wildlife Alliance's Community Based Ecotourism Project posted by responsiblenomad.
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