U.S. LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS CONDUCT JOINT TRAINING WITH THAI TASK FORCE

Special Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement completed two weeks of in-service training and observation exercises on 12 July 2007 with members of Thailand's ASEAN-WEN National Task Force.

The exercises followed a formal wildlife crime investigation training course conducted last year for the Thai Task Force by the ASEAN-WEN Support Program, which includes Wildlife Alliance (formerly WildAid), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), PeunPa, Interpol, Thai Police and Ministry of Justice and TRAFFIC. This formal training course took place at the Thai Police training center in Petchaburi, Thailand in August 2006.

Since that time, members of the Thai Task Force, comprised of the Thai Police, Customs and Department of National Parks, have engaged in multiple interdictions against wildlife trafficking. At the in-service training, they shared with the USFWS agents their experiences and progress. They also demonstrated their current strategies and techniques being used to suppress wildlife crime in Thailand. Similarly, the visiting USFWS agents shared with the Thai Task Force the techniques they employ to stop wildlife crime in the United States and at US borders.

“International cooperation is vital to protecting the world’s wildlife,” said Acting Chief Benito Perez of the USFWS Office of Law Enforcement. “We applaud the Thai Task Force for its successes and value our ongoing partnership with Thailand and the other ASEAN-WEN member nations in combating wildlife trafficking.”

Similar joint exercises involving the USFWS are scheduled for national ASEAN-WEN Task Forces in the Philippines and Indonesia.

ASEAN-WEN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network. It involves law enforcement agencies of the 10 ASEAN countries and facilitates cross-border collaboration in the fight against the region’s illegal wildlife trade.

Source: PeunPa/Wildlife Alliance (formerly WildAid) release dated July 12, 2007

Contact information:
PeunPa
Web site: www.peunpa.org
E-mail: info@peunpa.org