Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS)

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime has released a new report on great ape trafficking.

The under-reporting of great apes seized in illegal trade incidents, both nationally and internationally, is flagged as a serious problem in bringing a true appreciation of the great ape trafficking situation to the attention of governments, international organizations, and the media. Relevant institutions in the UN system and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are singled out as needing improvement in their approaches concerning the illegal trade in great apes.

By far the main demand driver for removing African great apes from the wild is for bushmeat, sold in local markets or transported to urban areas. Great ape body parts, particularly skulls and hands, have a local market for use in traditional medicine or rituals, and the skulls are sometimes purchased overseas by collectors, academic institutions and artists. Several seizures have been made of great ape skulls nationally or shipped internationally.

This report deals only with live African great ape trafficking, but infant capture often results as a byproduct of bushmeat hunting. Another potential deleterious impact of the illegal great ape trade was thrust into the spotlight by the COVID-19 pandemic. The most likely cause of the pandemic is that the virus passed from an infected wild animal to humans in a food market,4 although the possibility of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is favoured by some.

Most illegal great ape imports are done without veterinary health inspections or certificates, which raises considerably the risk of introducing one or more zoo-notic diseases to humans in destination countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised government and public awareness about the health risks involved in the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), which may lead to better legislation aimed at controlling this frequently ignored threat.

This report describes the evolution of this recent black market, which is different in important respects from the traditional exotic animal markets that preceded it. In some countries, the political and economic interests of corrupt government and law enforcement officials facilitate the illegal trade and hinder effective actions to stop it. Even international organizations dedicated to wildlife conservation are not free from the political and economic interests that impede successful trafficking-mitigation efforts, particularly in the case of great apes.

The report can be accessed here.

Editor’s note: Great ape capture in the wild and trafficking for the exotic pet trade has been rising for about two years. Prices for the infants have also been rising, providing even more incentive to the traffickers to increase their efforts. This new twist to infant capture introduces an alarming development that hopefully will be nipped in the bud. This article summarizes the situation at the time of writing. It is not over yet.

This is the ‘first incident in the world’ where baby apes have been kidnapped for ransom. The abductors have demanded a six-figure sum and threatened to harm the chimpanzees if their demands are not met

FP Explainers September 26, 2022

Three baby chimpanzees have been kidnapped in Congo for ransom. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons (Representational Image)

In a first, three baby chimpanzees have been kidnapped from an animal sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The kidnappers have demanded a six-figure ransom to free the three baby chimps– Monga, César and Hussein, reported The New York Times (NYT).

“This is the first time in the world that baby apes were kidnapped for ransom,” Franck Chantereau, co-founder of the sanctuary where the kidnapping took place, told CNN.

The sanctuary – Young Animals Confiscated in Katanga (shortened to  JACK in French) in Congo’s Lubumbashi – houses 40 chimpanzees and 64 monkeys of 14 species that have been rescued from Congo’s illegal wildlife trade, notes NYT.

How did the kidnapping take place and why were the chimps targeted?

Let’s take a closer look:

The abduction

As per CNN, the kidnappers broke into the sanctuary around 3 am on 9 September and took away three of the five baby chimpanzees rescued by Franck this year.

His wife Roxane Chantereau, co-founder of the sanctuary, received three texts and a video on WhatsApp showing two baby chimpanzees moving across a dirty floor covered with tumbled furniture, as per NYT.

As the video panned across the room, the third chimp was seen standing on a dresser with her arms tied over her head.

In the three voice messages, the kidnappers threatened to kill the chimpanzees unless Roxane paid the ransom money. Further, they reportedly threatened to kill her and abduct her two children.

“They told us that they had planned to kidnap my children because they were supposed to come here on vacation. But they didn’t come so the kidnappers took these three babies hostage and demanded a large amount of ransom from us,” Franck was quoted as saying by CNN.

The kidnappers claimed to have drugged the chimpanzees and threatened to hurt the hostage animals if their demand was not fulfilled.

The kidnappers have demanded a six-figure ransom to release the three baby chimps. Wikimedia Commons (Representational Image)

A few days later, Roxane Chantereau again received texts from the kidnappers warning that they will decapitate one of the baby chimpanzees and sell the other two to Chinese traffickers, Franck told NYT.

He stated they have not heard from the abductors for two weeks now which is “worrying” them.

He stated the authorities have taken the case “very seriously” and “consider the robbing of these babies as a security threat for the country,” NYT reported.

Franck said the sanctuary is unable to pay the ransom money, adding that if they heed the demand, this incident is likely to occur again in the coming months. Expressing apprehension, he told CNN there is no guarantee if the chimps will be returned even after the kidnappers are paid.

The authorities are also not in favour of paying the ransom.

Calling the abduction “inhumane and unnatural”, Michel Koyakpa, media adviser to DRC’s environment minister, told CNN, “we will not give in to this kind of demand”.

Koyakpa said the search is on to find the stolen baby chimpanzees.

Notably, Congo, which has a rich biodiversity, offers sanctuaries the same legal protections as national parks.

Sanctuary targeted earlier

In 2006, months after the sanctuary was opened, a group of people had broken in and torched the baby chimps’ sleeping place, leading to the death of two of the five apes that were there then, reports CNN.

While in September 2013, the sanctuary’s education center was targeted and set ablaze by miscreants, however, there were no fatalities.

Illegal wildlife trafficking

Illegal wildlife trade is not rare in Congo. It is the only country in Africa where all four great apes– chimpanzees, bonobos, western gorillas and eastern gorillas–  are found.

Congo has become a hotspot for wildlife trafficking.

The illegal trade of ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales, and poaching of live baby chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos has become rampant in Congo amid increase in demand for primates in China, Pakistan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Franck told NYT.

This is the first time that an ape has been kidnapped from a sanctuary in Africa for ransom. Wikimedia Commons (Representational Image)

However, this is the first time that an ape has been kidnapped from a sanctuary in Africa for ransom.

Franck said the buyers of these exotic animals are mostly rich people. He added that they do not understand the consequences of their action as to capture one baby, an entire family of up to 10 adults is killed by poachers.

Experts fear that if the kidnappers are not punished, there can be more kidnappings for ransom. “If they get away with this, these cases are going to happen over and over again,” Adams Cassinga, founder of Conserv Congo, a nonprofit group battling wildlife trafficking in DRC, told NYT.

He said the Congo government and global community must come together and send a stern message that such incidents will not be “tolerated”.

https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/explained-why-three-baby-chimpanzees-were-kidnapped-from-a-congo-sanctuary-11337121.html

Bua Noi, meaning Little Lotus in Thai, has festered in a bleak cage on top of a Bangkok department store for the last 33 years, deprived of sunlight and natural vegetation. She has never smelled the scents of nature that would float in on a fresh breeze in her tropical forest homeland back in Central Africa. She has never experienced the joy of having a baby. I therefore empathized as she glared at me with a ferocious scowl through the bars the first time I saw her many years ago.

Bua Noi has the distinction of being the only gorilla in all of Thailand. This gorilla has become the standard bearer for all the thousands of captive wild animals exploited for commercial gain in Thailand. She might also be the key to freeing many more illegally captured and trafficked wild animals held in private zoos and safari parks and putting a halt to a thriving trade that threatens endangered species. A highly disputed question has been, was Bua Noi acquired legally? If not, there can be a legal case for freeing her.

Pata Zoo is the Guantanamo Bay of the world’s worst zoos – no amount of campaigning seems able to close it. Bua Noi is its star prisoner, the focus of campaigns by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Thai animal welfare crusader Sinjira Apaitan, who has launched a Change.org petition that is closing in on its target of 150,000 signatures requesting the release of Bua Noi. 

Background

Pata Zoo was opened in 1983 by Vinai Sermsirimongkol, a businessman who owned the seven-story high Pata Pinklao Department Store in the unfashionable west side of the Chaophraya River, which cuts through Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and largest city (8.2 million people). Vinai converted the top two floors into a zoo, with cabinets holding reptiles and amphibians on the sixth floor and mammals in cramped cages on the top floor, including chimpanzees, orangutans, tigers, other big cats, bears and a male gorilla that Vinai named King Kong, who arrived in 1984 with a CITES export permit from the Aachen Bird and Animal Park in West Germany. The Thai CITES import permit was issued to Siam Farm Zoological Garden, Bangkok. No further details are known, unfortunately, since this trade was not reported to the CITES Trade Database by either country, an infraction of CITES regulations, since Great Apes are Appendix I – no commercial trade from the wild. 

When Vinai died, his younger brother Kanit took over and has been fighting doggedly to keep “the world’s saddest zoo” open to the public. A 2010 story in The Guardian newspaper quotes Kanit as saying that, “…the zoo is a respite for people looking to escape the concrete jungle of Bangkok and to reconnect with nature. The animals are especially popular with children.” 

The comment about children is true, but there is nothing resembling “nature” in the concrete, barren zoo. I first visited the Pata Zoo in Bangkok in 2013 while attending the 16^th CITES Conference of the Parties, a massive gathering of over 4,000 people concerned with the fate of the world’s wild plants and animals. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulates trade in over 37,000 wild species. I had been invited to attend because I was the lead author on a United Nations report on illegal great ape trade entitled Stolen Apes that was being launched at the conference. 

I found the zoo to be a deplorable place to hold animals, with desolate cages marred by rusted bars and concrete floors. Big cats paced back and forth in well-worn tracks or slept, while great apes reached out for bananas offered by visitors or stared forlornly through the bars. Bua Noi seemed frustrated and angry at being cooped up for 26 years (in 2013) in a prison with no vegetation. King Kong had died in 2007, so the last six years she had been alone. 

I revisited the zoo in 2019 and found Bua Noi and the other great apes where I had left them six years earlier. It was heartbreaking to think that they had been there all that time, in addition to all of the years since they had arrived. There was even a bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) in a dark cell above a chimpanzee cage, which I had not noticed before – perhaps arrived in the interim? No bonobo imports to Thailand are reported in the CITES Trade Database. No gorilla imports to Thailand are reported in the CITES Trade Database. So how could Bua Noi be a legally acquired import as the Bangkok Post reported in a 2014 story, repeated in 2020?

I knew from personal investigations that a steady stream of orangutans were smuggled into Thailand to feed its commercial zoo industry, so it would not be surprising if gorillas and bonobos were as well. 

During the 2019 visit I was in Bangkok with a cameraman shooting footage for a film series on great ape trafficking entitled “Stolen Apes”. One of the series focuses on Bua Noi.  A man holding a monkey who seemed to be a supervisor came up to us and asked us to stop filming. I asked him, “Where does this gorilla come from?” He replied, “She was born in a German zoo, came here legally 30 years ago.”

I could elicit no more information from him. I decided to get to the bottom of the question of from where and how Little Lotus did in fact find herself at Pata Zoo. I combed through old copies of the very informative International Primate Protection League newsletters, exchanged emails with IPPL’s founder Shirley McGreal, scoured the gorilla studbooks, used Google to search out old stories on Pata Zoo and Bua Noi on the Internet, searched various NGO websites and social media accounts of individuals named who were connected with gorilla trafficking and reviewed the  TRAFFIC reports on great ape trade.

From the information amassed I have reconstructed a scenario that is consistent with known facts.

The Scenario^[1]

Bibi received the order for four more baby gorillas in July 1987 from his father Walter, who was in Hohenstadt near Nuremberg in what was then West Germany. Walter Sensen moved back in 1985 from Equatorial Guinea, a former colony of Spain, to Hohenstadt because of a few brushes with the authorities, just as earlier in 1981 he had had to escape from neighboring Cameroon. Bibi replaced Walter in 1985 and now lived in Bata, a pleasant town on the Equatorial Guinea coast about 30 kilometers south of the border with Cameroon. Walter and Bibi were wild animal traffickers supplying shady zoos around the world with rare animals using their company African Animal Export. Bribes had secured them a five-year exclusive contract with the government for exports of gorillas and chimpanzees.

Bibi, real name Bernd Sensen, sent out word to his contacts in the villages of Rio Muni (mainland Equatorial Guinea) and nearby Cameroon and Gabon that he needed baby gorillas. Kurt Schafer, a known bird and animal trafficker, and Dr. Daeng of Siam Farm in Bangkok had put in an order for the four infants. By early September Bibi had the four infant gorillas, two males and two females, all under a year old. The gorilla mothers ended up as bushmeat, killed and butchered in front of their terrified infants.

Equatorial Guinea was not a member of CITES at the time and the Sensen’s had an in with the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Promotion of Enterprise, Florencio Esoro Obiang Angue, who signed a ministerial export permit number 381 for the four gorillas. Bernd submitted the permit to the Thailand CITES Management Authority in Bangkok and requested an import permit. Thailand rejected the minister’s document as not equivalent to a CITES export permit. Since gorillas were listed as CITES Appendix I, protected from commercial trade, Bernd knew that without a Thai import permit they had a problem. 

Walter made some telephone calls to traders he knew and made a new arrangement. Only one gorilla would go to Thailand – it was too risky shipping all four now that the Thailand authorities were alerted – and two would go to Aritake Chojouten in Japan, a notorious animal trafficker. It wouldn’t be difficult to find a buyer for the fourth. Bibi got hold of Wabi Bello, a Nigerian trafficker who specialized in African grey parrots, to get him a certificado de origen. The Certificate of Origin had Wabi Bello’s name on it and showed that he was exporting one gorilla that weighed 10 kilograms to Siam Farm Zoological Garden, Bangkok, Thailand. The document had official-looking stamps on it, so Bibi was happy and paid Bello the agreed price.

Bernd Sensen flew with the four gorillas as personal effects to Spain on Iberia airlines, using Minister Angue’s export permit. On 9 September 1987 he shipped the baby gorilla from Spain to Bangkok with the certificado de origen and two were shipped the same month to Chojouten in Japan, where he sold them to Chiba City Municipal Zoo for US$575,000. Fraudulent documents claimed that the two gorillas were bred in Ringland Circus, a modest outfit that toured Spain, it didn’t even have a permanent home.

The Iberia airlines waybill for Bua Noi identified the recipient as Dr. Daeng, Pata Zoo, Bangkok. The Pata Zoo owner, Vinai Sermsirimongkol, paid Siam Farm the agreed price for Bua Noi, just as he had paid them for Bwana in 1984. Vinai hoped that when Bua Noi became old enough she would mate with Bwana, now renamed King Kong, and give him valuable offspring to sell and recoup his expenses.

Walter Sensen was convicted and jailed for 2 years on 14 March 1990 in West Germany for illegally shipping three gorillas from Cameroon in January 1987 to Taiwan. He was later freed on appeal and continued to export gorillas and other great apes from Central Africa, assisted by his son Bernd. The situation became so alarming that the CITES Secretariat had to issue a Notification in 1988 warning CITES Parties not to accept imports of CITES-listed species from Equatorial Guinea.

So Bua Noi was not born in a German zoo, was not imported legally from anywhere, but rather she was just one of many ill-fated gorilla and chimpanzee infants captured in the wild by bushmeat hunters who killed their mothers and sold them off to traffickers. In the 33 years that Little Lotus has been suffering in her concrete cage in Pata Zoo she has paid back the zoo owners many times over what she cost them.

What now?

Recently, Sinjira joined forces with Polish activist Joanna Sobkowicz to launch the website freegorilla.org to raise awareness of Bua Noi’s story and give updates about the campaign to free her. 

“I met with Kanit in 2014”, Sinjira told me, “he promised to move all of the large animals from the rooftop by 2020. I am waiting.”

There are two possibilities of where Bua Noi could go, if freed. The first is to a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand, the second is to be repatriated back to Central Africa. As with most alternative choices, there are pros and cons with both.

In June the famous singer Cher came on board with her Free the Wild organization. Cher has written a personal letter to the Honourable Minister Varawut Silpa-Archa (Thailand Ministry of Natural Resources), requesting his urgent assistance for the rescue and release of Bua and the other primates kept at the zoo.

Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, the co-founder of Free the Wild, said, “I can advise that things are looking very hopeful.” After the success of freeing Kaavan, a lone elephant in the Islamabad Zoo, Free the Wild should be taken seriously.

Damian Aspinall of the Aspinall Foundation  is ready to sponsor and transport Bua Noi to a sanctuary in the Congo, which is actually in the general area from which she was stolen.  

The alternative possibility is a wildlife sanctuary located not too far from Bangkok. The sanctuary has a good track record for looking after rescued wild animals properly and it will also accept other primates from Pata Zoo, including chimpanzees, orangutans and the bonobo. 

Back to Africa might sound like the ideal solution to Bua Noi’s plight, but transport from Bangkok to Brazzaville, with layovers and plane changes, could be quite hazardous for a 33-year old female gorilla. The stress would be extreme. The maximum age for females in captivity is about 40 to 50 years, so she is probably close to the average age for mortality right now. Adjusting to life in a forest, even one where she would be supervised, could be a shock for Bua Noi, who reportedly has become attached to her two regular caregivers at Pata Zoo. 

Transport from Bangkok to the sanctuary would take about two hours by road. The surroundings are pleasant, with plenty of natural vegetation, fresh air and sunlight. With luck, one or two of her regular caregivers could go with her, at least for a transitioning period, to help her adjust to her new surroundings. 

And Khun Kanit Sermsirimongkol, Pata Zoo owner, could come to visit her, as he cares about Bua Noi as well. It would be a generous gesture on Khun Kanit’s part, gaining him the appreciation and respect of the international community and the Thai people.

With the verification provided here that demonstrates that Bua Noi was acquired in the wild and shipped and imported illegally into Thailand, there are good grounds to justify that she be freed. 

Illegal capture of endangered species in the wild for commercial zoos and the exotic pet trade is an enormous problem. Added risks of zoonotic spillover events are only too evident with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Commercial zoos such as Pata and many others like it encourage human-animal interaction for a fee (framed selfie photos, petting, playing, etc.). Three-quarters of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, transferred from animals to humans, facilitated by environmental destruction and wildlife crime. 

It is in the best interests of both humans and animals that commercial zoos and safari parks stop importing animals captured in the wild. Closing Pata Zoo and freeing Bua Noi would help current efforts to stop this type of wildlife trade and signal to the world that change is possible. 

^[1] Walter Sensen has passed away, but a draft of this article was sent to Bernd Sensen asking for corrections or comments. None have been received.

Nick, Khun Lee, Eddy and Tom

I was very occupied the next few days with my other operation in Africa. I heard from Jeffrey that nothing happened on the 30^th of November, there were mis-communications between Khun Lee and Ton, Tom’s agent. Tom called Jeffrey in his room at the hotel the night of the 30^th, scaring the heck out him, which he later wrote up for the NYT. Jeffrey left Bangkok on the 1^st.

On 1^st December I WhatsApped Freeland: “…give me an update.” They replied, “…again it was a no-show, we will need to wait and try again tomorrow.”

Since nothing seemed to be happening, I emailed Freeland on 2^nd December:

“Hi R. and [Khun Lee],

I was thinking, what if I started communicating with Tom again directly? I can say I’m back in Bangkok and very keen to receive the orangs and pay the money and be done with it. What did you say to explain my absence?

I think I could sign back onto WhatsApp with my former number if you stop using it. I will have to sign on again and they will send a 6-digit code to the number, which you will receive.  Then you will have to pass it on to me so I can verify.

Brief me on what has been said, and send me some screen grabs. We can say that I’m going to meet them with Mr. Lee to do the exchange.

Regards,

Xxxx”

Back then, a WhatsApp account was tied to a device, not to a SIM card. So even if the SIM card of the number the WhatsApp account was set up with was not in one’s phone, you could still operate it as long as you inserted the verification code. Since then, WhatsApp has done an update that allows it to detect the SIM card so the account will only operate with the device and SIM card together.

R. of Freeland replied immediately:

“Just to update you for yesterday, Ton lied to us and said he was delivering the kids in a black Toyota, this story later changed to ‘they will be delivered by taxi’. We waited until about 7:30, our driver was then asked to travel to Chanthaburi and would be paid 20,000 THB to deliver the Orangs. At this point we refused to proceed and called it a day.

Both [Khun Lee] and I agree that your plan would be a good idea. Please call me at your earliest convenience and we can do this while we are all together so I can pass you the 6-digit code.”

Chanthaburi? That was like a 5-hour drive southeast from Bangkok to a town only 40 km from the Cambodia border. It didn’t make any sense.

I called them and got the WhatsApp account using my Thai mobile phone number set up on my phone. I saw that Tom had sent me a message saying “Hello” at 18:35 on 29^th November and another message early the morning of 30^th November saying:

“Use this code to verify my WhatsApp messages and calls to you are end-to-end encrypted:

[three lines of numbered code]

No one had replied to either of Tom’s messages. Khun Lee had the SIM card, had he even put it in a phone to read Tom’s messages? That’s why Tom called Jeffrey’s hotel room the night of the 30^th, no one was answering my number.

I discovered that Exoticpet88 was back online. This photo of the kids was posted 1^st December:

These two were posted 3^rd December:

This photo was posted on @exoticpetworld on 1st December:

Because Nick had disappeared, Tom was advertising the kids for sale. It would be disaster if someone else bought them.

On 2nd December I WhatsApped R. at Freeland: “Exoticpet88 is back and showing the kids.”

No response, so on 4th December I emailed R.:

“Strangely, the Instagram account exoticpet88 (https://www.instagram.com/exoticpet88/) is back online. The account had no posts from 27 April, then was kicked off of Instagram in around October, I don’t know how they got back on. They are showing the kids from 1st December. The account they replaced it with is still functioning (https://www.instagram.com/exoticpetworld/) and also showing the kids.

I hope Khun [Lee] was serious about refunding me the THB 100,000. Are you going to try and arrest the bank account holder for fraud?”

No reply.

On a whim, I thought I would try contacting Tom using my +27 South Africa WhatsApp, which I had on another mobile phone:

Tom never replied to the old David WhatsApp number.

Still no reply from R., but on 6th December I was copied an email from the head of Freeland to Jeffrey, offering to collaborate on future sting operations to generate stories. One line caught my eye: “You saw [Lee] and [E.] in action during the on-the-job training support.” So Inspector X was being trained, he wasn’t an experienced police operative. I thought he looked young. The head of Freeland concluded: “Meanwhile, believe it or not, Op Kid continues in SE Asia. Hopefully more to come, but lets see.” He didn’t sound overly optimistic.

I received nothing more until 8th December, when R. sent a WhatsApp for me to call. I spoke with R. and with Khun Lee. I tried to formulate a plan of how Khun Lee could act as my agent in Bangkok to conclude the deal with Tom in my absence, me pretending to be in Phuket. I would contact Tom with my usual WhatsApp, saying that after no one had delivered the kids as agreed, I went back to Phuket. I would say I left the $17,150 with Khun Lee to pay for the kids. So if Tom was still in Bangkok, I would authorize Khun Lee to meet with Tom, make sure the kids were in good health, and give him the cash and take the kids. I would fly up to Bangkok and bring the kids back to Phuket.

Talking to Khun Lee about setting up how the sting would go was like an old Abbott and Costello skit, “who’s on first?”, except there was no humor in it. It was almost as if he didn’t want a concrete plan of who would do what, where and when. The call concluded with no clear understanding of what the next steps would be.

I contacted Tom on 15th December:

 
Nick: Lee is an idiot I don’t know what is wrong with him. I am trying to get my money back from him. When you didn’t show up Sunday or Monday 2 weeks ago I left money with him. I got fed up and left Tuesday. Lee has over $17,000 of my money. Why didn’t you meet to give kids and take money? I only get nonsense answers from Lee

Tom only replied with a photo:

 
[Next Day]

Nick: Ohhh they look adorable! Can I send someone to see them? If everything looks good I’ll fly up and we’ll finish it

Tom: Ok
Tom: Give me the number of your person .

Nick: Let me find someone I have to ask them. Do they have to go very far from Bangkok?

Tom: Just a bit . but we can easily work it out to see your kids .
Tom: Did you get your money back , Sir ?
Tom: Mr. Lee , Sir . your 17,000 $ .

Nick: Lee said he would give my money when I came up again

Tom: Ok.

[I didn’t want Khun Lee to run the op, so contacted Noi to see if she was in Bangkok. She wasn’t, she had left the country for something. But she sent me these screenshots from after the blown meeting of 1st or 2nd December, it wasn’t clear from R.’s communications which day the attempted meet took place:

 
This was the result of Khun Lee’s great management skills. I sent these screenshots to R. and said someone else should manage the sting meet for Freeland. R. said ‘Eddy’ would do it, one of their Thai operatives.

[Two days later]

Tom: Hi
Tom: Any update yet , Sir ? Holidays are approaching and I think we should plan as soon as we can .

Nick: I finally found someone who said they can contact you tomorrow. I don’t know that many people in Bangkok I had to ask Noi. She refused but said she knew someone who had time

Tom: Ok
Tom: So he will come to see the kids and take it ?
Tom: In fact I can send down the kids for you too but we have to manage how I should get paid and safe for both of us .

[Next day]

Nick: Noi said this guy can go look to see if kids are healthy and if they are I’ll come to pay and take them. His number is +66 64 275 xxxx
[This was Eddy’s number]

Tom: Ok
Tom: Let me forward the number now .

Nick: Ok

Tom: Noi told me you were inspired to get otans babies because you saw them in phuket zoo , rite ?

Nick: Yes. I was there with Jeffrey and they looked so cute

Tom: Great .
Tom: They got two babies , rite ?

Nick: Yes the keeper told me they got them from a zoo in Bangkok

Tom: But kept in the zoo is not good for them .
Tom: Really
[This was rich coming from an ape slaver.]

Nick: I think they were born in a zoo so what to do?

Tom: If they were captive born then should be OK . safari world in Bangkok got lots of jubenile otans when I was there
Tom: And at least ten little babies they got .
Tom: They breed them quite successful .
[More useful intel on Tom, he had inside info at Bangkok Safari World]

Nick: Really?

Tom: Yes
Tom: A lots of them .
Tom: My agent talked to Eddy today .
Tom: Eddy will go and meet your kids in the next couple of days .

Nick: I should have asked if they wanted to sell. Can they sell to individuals? Is eddy noi’s friend?

Tom: Eddy is nois contact .

Nick: Ok fine I hope he goes soon
[I was trying to distance myself from Eddy, in case Tom asked me any questions about who he was. If asked, my story was that Noi just gave me the phone number with no name.]

Tom: They can’t sell to private person .

Nick: What I thought

Tom: In fact Eddy could take back the kids for you if you want .
Tom: He can go inspect , inform you and take it back if you want .

Nick: Lee would have to give him the money. Let me think about it and find out from Noi more about who eddy is

Tom: Ok , Sir .

[Next day]

Tom: Hello

Nick: Hello

Tom: Have you spoken to Noi about Eddy ?
Tom: My guy in bkk is on stand by for you

Nick: She hasn’t answered my call maybe she’s busy. I sent her message to call me

Tom: Ok

Nick: Noi called me and said Eddy is very trustworthy. He will go look at the kids and if they are in good health he will let me know and I will tell Lee to deposit the money. Should it go into the same account as before?

Tom: Yes , Sir .
Tom: Ok
Tom: I will tell my local guy to set up meeting with Eddy , Sir .

Nick: Wonderful

Tom: Will.update

[I was in communications with R. and another Freeland staff member coordinating the meet between Eddy and Tom’s agent. We were all on the same page. It was disappointing that Tom would not be there for the sting, but hopefully his agent would be able to spill the beans on the network and the true identities of Tom and others.]

[Next day, 21 December 2016]

Nick: Hello Tom. Eddy is not answering his phone. Did he pick up the kids?

Tom: My guy is waiting for him since one hour .
Tom: He said he is on the sky train

Nick: Ok I’ll try to be patient

Tom: Ok
Tom: Eddy called you back yet ?

 
[Tom’s guy never took the kids to a vet. The deal was supposed to be a handover of the kids to Eddy, Eddy would inform Lee, and Lee would deposit the final payment. I received a call from Freeland that the courier had been arrested and the kids seized by the police. I later discovered that the sting had been held in a mall parking garage. Why? What happened to the plan to make the arrest in the vet’s office? I was never to receive an answer to my question.]

Nick: Noi told me kids were seized. What do l do?

[No reply]

On 25th December I sent a last message:

Nick: Merry Christmas Tom

The +855 81 number went dead, never to return to service, and the Exoticpet88 and Exoticpetworld IG accounts disappeared from the Internet.

There was considerable media coverage of the sting (selected):

AP on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCHe8zYIDsE

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1167496/baby-orangutans-rescued-in-thai-police-sting

https://www.freeland.org/post/exotic-wildlife-trafficking-ring-broken-in-asia

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38409849

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4063418/Baby-orangutans-rescued-Thai-police-sting.html

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2016/12/22/thai-police-rescue-two-baby-orangutans/95742732/

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/thai-police-rescue-two-baby-orangutans/videoshow/56124321.cms

http://www.thestartv.com/episode/thai-wildlife-authority-agents-seized-two-smuggled-infant-orangutan-from-sting-operation/

baby-orangutans/vp-BBxsilS / https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/thai-police-rescue-two-baby-orangutans/vp-BBxsilS

http://www.khou.com/features/baby-orangutans-rescued-in-thailand/376899269

http://thailand-uk.com/forums/showthread.php?21750-Baby-orangutans-rescued-from-Thai-taxi

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/its-really-saddening-see-thai-police-rescue-baby-orangutans-in-wildlife-trafficking-bust-v1

http://globalheadlines.ddns.net/news/baby-orangutans-rescued-from-thai-taxi

http://www.entirenewslink.com/baby-orangutans-rescued-from-thai-taxi/

http://hottestnews.xyz/sciencenature/baby-orangutans-rescued-from-thai-taxi/

http://journaltimes.com/news/world/video-thai-police-rescue-baby-orangutans/video_33d70f5a-6de0-5765-a2e7-3892694bfd7c.html

http://www.bta.bg/en/gallery/image/3837244

http://theworldlink.com/news/world/video-thai-police-rescue-baby-orangutans/video_3783ccaf-ea34-5b43-89f1-804bba58e74d.html

http://azdailysun.com/news/world/video-thai-police-rescue-baby-orangutans/video_e43d6cd8-1a1d-5fd1-b489-d064bd581940.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-23/thai-police-rescue-two-baby-orangutans/8144566

http://www.bkgnews.com/sciencenature/baby-orangutans-rescued-from-thai-taxi/

http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/world/video-thai-police-rescue-baby-orangutans/video_a453a52f-08cf-5658-8e28-6d3168672bb5.html

https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/panorama/vermischtes/zwei-baby-orang-utans-aus-schmugglerhaenden-befreit-130814731

Infant orangutans rescued in police sting

Video of Bangkok trafficker and orangs https://www.facebook.com/edwin.wiek/videos/10153985145382443/

Freeland sent me some photos of the bust.

I only found out later that there was only a taxi driver in the car, no ‘agent’ of Tom’s – unless the driver was the agent.

 
The kids were taken to a government wildlife holding facility outside of Bangkok.

 
I tried for weeks to get news from Freeland of what was happening with the case, but no one would give me a straight answer, just saying it was in progress. I didn’t even know if anyone had been arrested or if a prosecution was planned. I thought at least Jirapat, the person in whose bank account I had made the deposit, could be prosecuted. I only found out from tweets on Edwin Wiek’s Twitter account later what happened.

 
Nothing. No arrests, no prosecutions, no investigation. The only good outcome, other than preventing the trafficking of the kids, was Jeffrey’s New York Times article, which came out almost a year after the sting:

End of Part III.

by

Nick

Editor’s note: This comprehensive account describes the prodigious effort it took to set up relations with a large-scale exotic pet trafficker based in Southeast Asia and pull off a sting operation. Exoticpet88, the name of an Instagram account, was reputedly run by a kingpin animal trafficker named Joe. The account advertised a wide range of wildlife species for sale, with most of the animals or birds being captured in the wild. Exoticpet88 operated a farm on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, where it held the animals before shipment. The network was made up of field wildlife collectors in Southeast Asia and wildlife suppliers further afield in Africa and Latin America, inferred from the species seen in online posts. They had particularly strong connections with traders and buyers in the Middle East and South Asia.

It took 5 months of effort, with dead-ends, stops and starts, shifts in undercover identities, and great persistence to finally lay a trap aimed at catching the head of the Exoticpet88 network in the act of illegally selling two infant orangutans. The undercover investigator used various aliases and this narrative describes how others assisted in the operation. The investigator last used the alias Nick and this is his story.

PART I – David and Joe

I first heard of Exoticpet88 in late December, 2015, when Patricia emailed me with a screenshot of his Instagram account as it appeared on a mobile phone. She wrote, “Instagram account exoticpet88 … is apparently a man who calls himself Joy [sic] in Thailand. He exports all kinds of animals to the Arab countries via the Oman airport. He sends gibbons with dogs in crates, so the dogs’ barking veil the gibbons. He is one of many Thai dealers, I’m told, that do the same. They take animals from all over Southeast Asia (gibbons, lorises, orangs, etc.). He even has a picture of a clouded leopard on the attached image.”

I first met Patricia Tricorache of the Cheetah Conservation Fund electronically in June, 2015, when she emailed me out of the blue asking if I knew anything about cheetah cub capture and trafficking from the Horn of Africa. I said I didn’t, but that I’d seen quite a few posts on social media of cheetahs either being offered for sale or being flaunted by proud owners, mainly in the Gulf. Since we were both engaged in investigating illegal wildlife trade, me with great apes and her with cheetahs, we agreed to collaborate. Soon after that, she began sharing with me a very large collection of material that she had amassed from years of work. I had only started looking at Facebook and Instagram accounts in March of that year, so Patricia’s information provided me with a huge boost.

I reciprocated by sending her the account links of cheetahs I came across, after checking first with her Excel spreadsheet that listed those she had already found. We soon had an active exchange system running, demonstrating the truth of the adage that ‘two heads are better than one’.

Over time I developed my methodology of how I would find new traffickers, figure out who was linked with whom, who was a dealer, who an exotic pet owner (i.e. buyer), who was both, and discerning the networks of suppliers, middlemen, clients and those who collaborated closely with one another. It took a while to determine the composition of the interlinked wildlife trafficking networks based in South, Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Americans, Europeans and Hong Kong Chinese also appeared in the exchanges, but not mainland Chinese. I thought this odd, until I discovered that China does not allow Facebook or Instagram to operate. Chinese use mainly Weibo, Alibaba, Taobao (owned by Alibaba) and WeChat to conduct the trafficking business.

The way I recorded the information I found online also evolved over time. After about a year I had down pat how I would crop the screen grab to include the photo, the name of the account, any important comments on it (which might mean more than one screenshot if I had to scroll down) and the date. I would label the screenshot in a numbered sequence with the date of the post DD/MM/YR. I downloaded mainly great ape posts, but I also started collecting information including contact emails and mobile/WhatsApp numbers, other social media accounts, posts of financial transactions (some of the traffickers actually posted bank transfer and deposit documents), visits to other countries, group photos, Friends and Followers of interest, and any other photos that might provide useful information about activities, identities and locations. I discovered that re-posts of the same animal photo on different accounts was fairly common, which created problems for identifying who made the original post and when it was made. Some ‘for sale’ advertisement posts were also deleted after a sale was made, creating more difficulties in recording everything that was going on, as I must have missed many of those. I made up a couple of Excel databases, one with the names and data by country, the other with the names and numbers of each species seen to get a count.

The work was extremely time-consuming and as the number of persons-of-interest (POI) increased, it became progressively more difficult to monitor all of the existing POIs and add new ones. Some of the POIs had multiple Facebook (FB) and/or Instagram (IG) accounts in different names, and determining that took time. Accounts would also close from time to time, I was never certain of the reason, and sometimes I could find a new one pop up owned by the same POI as a recently closed account.

Back to Exoticpet88

Patricia gave me access to her screengrabs of Exoticpet88. Most were crops of the photos only, but some were whole page screen grabs so I could see the photo, name of the account, a few comments and how long ago it was posted. One of these proved that the account owner was based in Jakarta and strongly suggested he was selling chimpanzees. Where were they coming from? The screengrab was dated 14 July 2014 and it was 87 weeks old, so posted around April 2012. There were other posts of chimpanzees, infant orangutans, all kinds of monkeys, big cat cubs, red pandas, reptiles (including crocodiles) and colorful birds. On many of his posts and in his profile he gave his email address. In early 2016, the Exoticpet88 account disappeared from Instagram.

“I am in Jakarta”. Exoticpet88 was selling chimpanzees. Where were they coming from?

I made some enquiries and was told that Joe had quit the exotic pet trading business. Some time earlier I had come across a Kuwaiti who announced he was quitting the business. His IG moniker was @exoticpet, plus other accounts with a variation on the name. Was there a connection with @exoticpet88?

An IG account owned by a Kuwaiti animal trafficker.

In August 2016 I decided to contact the old @exoticpet88 email address with an alias name email account I had set up for other purposes years earlier, so if @exoticpet88 checked it he would see it was old and not one set up recently just to contact him.

I wrote, “Hello, are you still in business? I’m looking for something.”

Three weeks later a ‘Joe TK <exoticpet88@gmail.com>’ replied:

I’d struck pay dirt! Over two weeks later I replied, “Am looking for young otans.” In previous communications with Indonesian traffickers some referred to orangutans as ‘otans’, so I thought using the term would show Joe that I was not a novice.

The next day he replied, “Give me your cell number pls”.

Two days later I responded, “Use WhatsApp +XXXXXXXXXX”, giving him a WhatsApp number from a country I was not in, to help hide my identity. As I travelled around I opened WhatsApp accounts on different devices with the country codes and numbers of the different countries. As long as we stuck with WhatsApp I was okay, but if he wanted a cell phone call I was dead, unless I was actually in the country of the number at the time.

Joe got back to me the next day with the message below.

A zoo license? I guessed he was being careful, trying not to appear to be what he was – a big-time exotic pet trafficker, as his IG handle indicated. Our conversation progressed as shown below. I’m the green-coloured text.

The person I thought was Joe called me by mobile service network, not WhatsApp audio, I imagine to confirm that I actually was in South Africa. I was using a +27 country code SIM card and just happened to be in South Africa at the time. The man spoke reasonably good English with what sounded like a Malaysian or Indonesian accent. He said that Joe was no longer running @exoticpet88, but that he was. He said for me to call him Tom. After speaking briefly, he sent me a video of a young orangutan he said was for sale. He asked me if I knew a wildlife trader in South Africa named Eddy. I said I didn’t. I later passed the name on to someone who studied wildlife trade based in South Africa with TRAFFIC. He hadn’t heard of any Eddy either.

His mobile number was +855 81 followed by six numbers. I went online to see if I could trace it, using Truecaller and a reverse caller number lookup app, plus just using a Google search. Nothing. A +855 area code is both the country code for Cambodia and a toll-free number that can be purchased for use in the USA and Canada. But there was no ‘81’ city code for Cambodia and the only five mobile prefixes in the country were +855 11, 12, 15, 16 and 18. No 81. All the North American +855 numbers require seven following numbers, and Joe’s was eight. Indeed a mystery.

 
It was now the 3^rd of October, I was leaving South Africa on the 5^th. There was a New York Times journalist very interested in doing a story on great ape trafficking and he was eager to go along with me to witness the sting and arrest, but it was difficult setting a time when he could go to Indonesia. That explains my “am checking with partner and buyer” above. I flew to another country on the 5^th and contacted Tom on 6^th October with the South African WhatsApp number.

I had found that Tom or his associates had set up a new IG account in September or October 2016 called @exoticpetworld and many of the posts were re-posts from @exoticpet88.

This post of an orangutan infant posted on 10th October 2016 was first posted on @exoticpet88 in 2014.

It looked like Tom and/or his associates were reviving the online business.

Otans selling quickly to China was not good news. I knew that there was a rapidly expanding zoo and safari park industry there, orangutans were popular.

I was in Dubai 18-22 October to collect information about wildlife traffickers operating there from various sources that I had developed over the previous two-and-a-half years. I replaced the South African SIM card with a UAE one.

I traced the number to Byat Juma bin Byat, one of the owners of Amazonpet, a major exotic animal trafficker in the UAE. I had recently visited their two pet shops in Al Warsan, on the outskirts of Dubai, and had been monitoring their ads of great apes, gibbons, tiger and lion cubs and other endangered species for a couple of years. I had even posted comments on their IG account asking to buy chimpanzees, but no reply, and then on 19^th October while in Dubai I sent a message by WhatsApp to the number advertised on their IG account asking to buy an ape pet. They replied that they only had reptiles. I thought it was too risky to contact them again with the same UAE number and a different cover story. By 23 October, when Tom sent me the number, I had already left Dubai and could not therefore buy a new UAE SIM card. Bad timing.

Six months earlier, in March 2016 Amazonpet posted this photo, along with many others around the same time, of apes, big cats, etc., so their WhatsApp message to me that they sold only reptiles rang hollow.

My exchange with Tom ceased for the time being.

End of Part I

ELIZABETH CLAIRE ALBERTS wrote a wonderful story in The Dodo on Poco, one of Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary’s most famous residents. We reprint it here.

He might look different, but he’s the sweetest chimp — and loves to show off for visitors at his new sanctuary home.

It’s been more than two decades since Poco the chimpanzee was rescued — but anyone who visits Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, where Poco now lives, is reminded of where he came from. Poco spent nine horribly long years locked inside a tiny cage, which is now displayed on the sanctuary grounds.

Poco’s cage used to be suspended from a shop roof in Bujumbura, Burundi. He was kept there to attract customers, who would buy bananas and other snacks to feed him. While no one really knows how the shop owner got Poco in the first place, rescuers believe he was stolen from the wild when he was 3 years old.

Poco was never let out of his metal prison, which forced him to live standing in an upright position. Not only would this have been uncomfortable, but it’s unnatural for a chimp to stand like this. Poco was also exposed to the sun and wind and rain.

In the early 1990s, things finally changed for Poco. Authorities managed to confiscate him from the shop owners, and transferred him to a rescue center run by the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in Burundi. After spending two years being rehabilitated at the JGI center, civil war broke out in Burundi — and Poco was transferred to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya, which is run by Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Poco’s time at the JGI rescue center had helped him move forward, but he still had a lot of emotional healing left to do when he arrived at Sweetwaters.

“When he got to Ol Pejeta it was emotional to see him still traumatized by hearing human voices,” Roxanne Mungai, communications and marketing administrator for Ol Pejeta Conservancy, told The Dodo.

But with time, Poco blossomed into a happy, healthy chimp. He loved the space and freedom to move around at the sanctuary, and he enjoyed meeting the other rescued chimps.

“He was introduced to a healthy population of chimpanzees who he observed and interacted with, and learnt to behave like a chimpanzee,” Mungai said. “It was amazing that despite his tough nine years in the cage, he [was] relatively healthy enough to be rehabilitated.”

“He enjoys fishing for honey and other treats at the enrichment structures put up at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary,” Mungai added. “He is good friends with one of our older chimpanzees called Max.”

Poco still stands in an upright position, which is how he stood in his cage — and this is how visitors identify Poco from the other 36 chimps living at the sanctuary.

“Poco is always a favorite among our visitors and is identified by his unique ability to stand on his hind legs,” said Mungai, adding that Poco oftens stands this way to show off.

“He really likes people and will strut or throw sticks to get the attention of visitors,” a spokesperson for Ol Pejeta Conservancy wrote on Facebook. “Poco is one of our more gentle chimpanzees, and his bipedal swagger ensures he stands out from the crowd!”

While Poco was lucky to be rescued, wild chimps continue to face numerous threats— people are rapidly destroying the forests in which they live and poaching them for their meat. Wild chimps are also captured and sold into the entertainment industry or as pets.

The sanctuary keeps Poco’s cage out on display to this day to help spread awareness about the issues wild chimps face.

“They [visitors] get emotional hearing about his story and how he overcame being enslaved,” Mungai said. “We can only say he was strong and lucky.”

To help rescue other wild chimps from captivity, you can make a donation to Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

 [If you would like to see Poco run click here]

VIEW THE COMMENTS

The Abraham Foundation, based in New York City, USA, kindly responded to a PEGAS request for funding to allow the project to continue operating into the new year, when hopefully PEGAS can obtain sufficient funds to continue its important work.

PEGAS has targeted a number of high profile wildlife traffickers that it will try to put out of business, and there are a number of captive great apes that are in dire need of a sanctuary. The work will carry on, thanks to Nancy Abraham and the Foundation. Thank you.

PEGAS, working in collaboration with Sam Wolson Media, has produced a short 4-minute video that explains why the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary exists, its history and connection with Dr. Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert and conservationist. Jane was kind enough to narrate the video herself. The residents of Sweetwaters are the victims of the illegal pet and zoo trade, as the video explains.

Please view the video here