4 held after raids target shops with rare shawls
Police arrested two Indian "smugglers" and seized a large number of expensive shahtoosh shawls - made from the highly endangered Tibetan antelope - after simultaneous raids on fabric shops in central Bangkok.
Indians Wani Khalid Rasool and Bhat Mushtaq Ahmad, plus another unnamed Indian man and a Thai man are now in custody after they allegedly sold 254 shahtoosh shawls to Thai agents in a sting operation. The suspects have been charged with smuggling the hides of protected animals and failing to pay tariffs for taxable items. The offences are punishable by up to five years in jail and/or a fine of Bt50,000. The 254 shawls were sold to undercover agents for a total of Bt47,000. But the shawls can cost up to 10 times that amount each in Japan and Europe. The raids on Monday - on Silk Route Arts and Craft shop in OP Place on Charoenkrung Road and Kashmir Arts Emporium in the Silom Shopping Centre on Silom Road - resulted from four months undercover work by the Natural Resources and Environmental Crimes Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. Thai officials uncovered a syndicate dealing in shahtoosh, spanning at least three countries and involving multiple parties, after receiving a tip-off from the new Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-WEN). The shops targeted in the raid are in high-end commercial areas of Bangkok, catering to wealthy buyers from Europe and Japan - underscoring the market for the illegal, costly wool. Authorities are waiting for the results of tests to determine the authenticity of the confiscated shawls, but inquiries continue into other traffickers implicated during police interrogations of the four detained "dealers". Even dealers pretending to be selling shahtoosh can be charged with fraud. Wildlife officials said it took three to five Tibetan antelopes to make one shahtoosh shawl. According to Asean-WEN, the black market for shahtoosh highlights the difficulties in tackling the illegal wildlife trade. Despite conservation campaigns, strict laws and high-profile criminal cases, demand for the super-fine wool, and thus poaching, persists. Last year, Swiss officials confiscated 537 shahtoosh shawls. Traffickers appear to be changing their smuggling routes as enforcement improves in some areas.
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