因走私象牙犀角，亚洲非法贸易集团大佬被捕

Thai police have arrested a man alleged to be the head of Asia’s biggest illegal wildlife trading networks.

泰国警方逮捕了一名据称是亚洲最大的非法野生动物贸易网络头目。

Boonchai Bach, a 40-year-old Thai of Vietnamese origin, was detained in a town on the border with Laos.

40岁的越南籍泰国人布查巴赫被关押在老挝边界的一个小镇。

He faces up to four years in jail for smuggling protected animal parts like rhino horns and elephant ivory.

因走私像犀牛角和象牙等受保护的动物制品，他面临长达四年的监禁。

Animal trafficking is a lucrative black market trade. Police said the suspect was "ringleader" of a "major smuggling syndicate" operating over a decade.

动物交易是一个利润丰厚的黑市交易。警方表示，嫌疑人是十多年来“走私集团”的“头号人物”。

He was arrested on Friday over the smuggling of 14 rhino horns worth around 1m USD (700,000 Pounds) from Africa to Thailand.

星期五，他因为从非洲到泰国走私了14只价值约100万美元（70万英镑）的犀牛角而被捕。

After tracking all the people involved in the consignment of rhino horn which was stopped last month, the police say they have enough evidence to charge him.

在上个月刚结束的对犀牛角走私活动的所有参与者的跟踪后，警方说他们有足够的证据指控他。

Boonchai Bach was known to run a business from a small border town on the Mekong River, over which illicit goods are often smuggled to Laos, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

英国广播公司驻曼谷的乔纳森?汉德表示，布查巴赫从湄公河上的一个小型边境小镇开始经营业务，非法商品经常被偷运到老挝。

Laos is one of the main routes through which poached animal parts from Africa and Asia are moved to buyers in Vietnam and China.

老挝是非洲和亚洲的偷猎动物肢体部分转移到越南和中国买家的主要途径之一。

However, despite the recent success of the Thai authorities in intercepting shipments of wildlife parts, they have been unable to break up the large and powerful trafficking networks, our correspondent says.

然而，尽管泰国当局最近成功拦截了野生动物肢体的运输，但他们却无法打破这个庞大而强大的贩运网络，记者说。

The anti-trafficking group Freeland, which helped to find the evidence, believes Boonchai Bach’s arrest will seriously disrupt his alleged wildlife smuggling operation, which it says is one of the biggest in this region.

帮助寻找证据的反贩运集团Freeland认为，布查巴赫的被捕将严重破坏他的野生动物走私活动，据说这是该地区最大的走私活动之一。

The Bachs have "long run the international supply chain of illicit wildlife from Asia and Africa to major dealers in Laos, Vietnam and China", Freeland said in statement.

Freeland在声明中说，布查巴赫“长期运营从亚洲和非洲向老挝，越南和中国的主要经销商的国际供应链，为其提供非法野生动物”。