Kingpin of country’s illegal turtle trade held in Chennai
BHOPAL: An international smuggler of rare species of turtles has been arrested by the Madhya Pradesh forest department’s special task force (STF), the force’s officials said.
A four-member special task force (STF) team led by Ritesh Sirothia, special task force (STF) (wildlife crime) in-charge, arrested Manivannan Murugesan from Chennai, brought him to Madhya Pradesh via a flight on Thursday and presented him before the special court at Sagar in the afternoon.
The court sent Murugesan to a five-daspecial task force (STF) remand, the force’s officials said.
Sirothia said Murugesan was wanted by special task force (STF), Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) and Interpol for a long time.
He was ranked third internationally in the illegal trade of rare species of turtles and was considered the kingpin of India’s illegal turtle trade market. Murugesan’s name had surfaced first during the interrogation of Ajay Singh whom special task force (STF) had arrested from Agra in June last year for smuggling Red Crown Rooted Turtle, the officer said.
Singh revealed the trafficking network of turtle smugglers across India.
Smugglers took the rare turtles out of the country to Hong Kong and Singapore through two routes — via Chennai–sri Lanka and Kolkata– Bangladesh. Murugesan’s name
HE WAS RANKED THIRD INTERNATIONALLY IN THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF RARE SPECIES OF TURTLES AND WAS CONSIDERED KINGPIN OF INDIA’S ILLEGAL TURTLE TRADE MARKET
surfaced again during the interrogation of wildlife smuggler Mohammad Irfan who was arrested by the special task force (STF) in Kolkata few days back, Sirothia said. Murugesan was a Singapore-based businessman and had illegal trade links in Thailand, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, China and Madagascar, besides Singapore.
“His arrest will prove to be very significant in busting the international wildlife smuggling network,” he said.
A smuggler, Thameem Ansari was arrested in October last year from Chennai.
Apart from him, the arrest of over ten poachers and traffickers led the special task force (STF) to a bigger turtle trafficking network across the country