March 13, 2018
Asian elephants, found in India
and Southeast Asia, are listed as an endangered species
Four heavily armed poachers who
targeted wild elephants in Malaysia have been caught, officials said Tuesday,
the second such arrest in less than two years.
Wildlife officials said the gang caught near the town of
Gerik in the northern Malaysian state of Perak was found with deer antlers and
suspected tiger bones.
A joint police and wildlife department
investigation also led the agents to find an elephant shot dead by the poachers
in a nearby forest with its tusks ripped
out.
"This crew is notorious.
They hunt elephants,"
wildlife department chief Abdul Kadir Abdul Hashim told AFP.
"There are maybe two more
(poaching) groups (in the area). We are working together with the police on
this."
A police statement said weapons
including rifles and homemade shotguns as well as animal snares were found
after they arrested the gang.
The elephant's tusks were not
found, with a wildlife official believing that they were already sold.
He added that the gang—all
locals—were believed to have been operating since 2009, and were also active in
the nearby state of Kelantan.
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