Sting Traps Suspected Poachers, Saves Tigers By Alex Devine (The Cambodia Daily) As part of an undercover sting operation, Forestry Department officials on Thursday arrested two suspected wildlife traffickers attempting to sell four tigers on a crowded street in downtown Phnom Penh. But the suspects say they were only acting on behalf of a high-ranking government official who keeps two private zoos. Just after noon Thursday, the alleged traffickers and two other men arrived in a pick-up truck at a rendezvous arranged by undercover agents working with the Forest Crimes Monitoring Unit. Military police, disguised as motodops, milled around near the meeting point, in front of the International Youth Club near Wat Phnom. Across the street, at the Sunway Hotel--where the Environment Ministry is holding a conference on conservation--FCMU officials waited for the transaction. At a signal from one of the buyers, about 10 undercover military police swooped in, stripped off their shirts to reveal their uniforms and arrested the men. In a cage in the back of the truck, police found two 10-month old tigers, said FCMU adviser Patrick Lyng. Two women in a second vehicle bearing two tiger cubs arrived on the scene, witnessed the arrests and sped off. Later Thursday a wildlife conservationist acting independently of the FCMU bought the two cubs. Lyng said he regretted the two cubs were not confiscated legally, blaming it on the limited enforcement powers granted by the wildlife law. Another weakness of the current law is that there are no adequate deterrents for violators, who can make tens of thousands of dollars in a single deal, Lyng said. Traffickers face no jail time and fines of between $2.63 to $263. A new law is winding its way through the legislature. "I'll be surprised if [the suspects] spend any time in jail," he said. "I think they'll be fined and then released." The undercover agents had recently negotiated with the suspects, Ku Sophea, 32, and Mean Von, 45, at a village near the border in Pailin, Lyng said. They arranged for the dealers to bring the tigers to Phnom Penh, where authorities would be better equipped to carry out the operation. The dealers alleged they were hired by Senator Nhim Vanda to help him stock his private zoos in Prey Veng and Kampot provinces. Mean Von said Nhim Vanda asked him and Ka Sophea to buy two lions, but when they couldn't find lions, they bought the tigers instead. Nhim Vanda didn't want the tigers and instructed the men to try to sell them for a profit, Mean Von alleged. The dealers bought the animals on the Thai border a week ago and brought them to Phnom Penh on Tuesday, Mean Von said. They kept them at a house in the city owned by Nhim Vanda, he alleged. "The money is for Mr. Vanda. It is not for me," he said after his arrest. Two other men arrested at the scene and later released after questioning are employees of Nhim Vanda, Ros Kannaka, deputy director of the Forestry Task Force, said. Nguon Sophal, a military policeman, works as the senator's bodyguard, and Om Un, also a military policeman, works as his driver. The pick-up truck also belongs to the senator, the suspects and Ros Kannaka said. Repeated attempts Thursday to reach Nhim Vanda for comment failed. Ka Sophea and Mean Von were still being held Thursday night. Authorities said they hoped to net all four tigers in the first sting operation, but later Thursday, they found the wives of the suspected traffickers were still willing to negotiate a deal to sell the two cubs despite the fact their husbands were in police custody. "They're not rocket scientists," Lyng said, noting that the suspects had given them thumb-printed receipts for the tigers. The buyers negotiated to meet the two women near Century Plaza on the western outskirts of Phnom Penh late Thursday afternoon. On the way, they collected an armed, plainclothes policeman from the Forestry Task Force headquarters near Pochentong Airport, and more plainclothes police followed them by car and motorcycle. But they arrived at the rendezvous, the two women refused to produce the cubs and instead insisted the buyers go to a private house near by to close the deal. Forest officials arrived on the scene, but could no enter the house without a court order-a restriction Lyng says greatly hampers their ability to enforce the law. A representative of a wildlife conservation group then bought the cubs and handed them over to the forestry department. Those involved declined to specify how much was paid for the two cubs, but the dealers had quote prices of between $2,500 and $3,500 for each of the four animals, Lyng said. The tigers will be kept at the Forestry Task Force Headquarters before being shifted to Phnom Tamao zoo, authorities said. The road to the zoo is currently flooded. Along with the two 10-month olds, which weigh around 75 kg, are a 12-week-old male, weighing about15 kg, and a 7-week-old female. The youngest is a little larger than a house cat. Zoo officials said the animals seem healthy and don't appear to have been maltreated. The zoo will monitor them and assess whether they can be released to the wild, though reintroducing tigers to their native habitat can be extremely difficult, the officials said. By day's end, with four tigers in their custody, there was a celebratory mood among the investigating team. But the sting, while successful, also illustrates the massive scale of the wildlife trade in Cambodia, said one buyer. "It's really frightening," he said. "It takes only one day to buy four tigers in Cambodia."

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