CIB finds 124,200 gecko carcasses at Pathum Thani warehouse
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday, March 8, searched a warehouse in Lam Luk Ka district, Pathum Thani, leading to the arrest of two suspects and the seizure of dried gecko carcasses and restricted wood.
The CIB’s Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division said investigators had developed information that the site was being used to hide wildlife carcasses and protected wood, with possible links to an international smuggling network.
Officers gathered evidence and obtained a search warrant from Thanyaburi Provincial Court before carrying out a detailed inspection of the premises. During the search, officers found goods packed into boxes and sacks in large quantities.
The seized items include dried gecko carcasses in 414 boxes, with about 300 carcasses per box, and an average weight of about 10 kilogrammes per box, for a total of about 4,140 kilogrammes. Police said this equated to about 124,200 gecko carcasses.
They also found restricted timber products stored in sacks, including fragments of sandalwood and Siamese rosewood in 498 sacks, at about 40 kilogrammes per sack, for a total of about 19,920 kilogrammes, or nearly 20 tonnes.
In addition, police seized finely ground sandalwood and Siamese rosewood in 210 sacks, weighing about 8,400 kilogrammes. The combined weight of the restricted wood found at the warehouse was reported as nearly 30 tonnes.
Two suspects, Rung and Game, were arrested at the warehouse. The pair are reportedly siblings and have rented the property for about four years, using it to store goods awaiting export overseas.
The suspects told officers a customer left gecko carcasses from Satun at the warehouse in August 2025 for Rung to ship to China, but they claimed nothing had been exported. They also said the sandalwood and Siamese rosewood were awaiting export as well.
The search followed an October 2025 case in Chumphon, when police stopped a suspicious enclosed pickup and found 70 boxes of dried gecko carcasses weighing more than 700 kilogrammes.
The shipment contained about 21,000 carcasses, which were seized, and investigators then expanded the case to trace sources and networks.
Investigators said the dried gecko carcasses were allegedly smuggled in from Indonesia, stored at the Lam Luk Ka warehouse to combine shipments, and prepared for export to China.
Geckos are a controlled wild animal, police said, meaning import, possession or trade requires permission. Rung and Game were charged under the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act 2019 with importing and possessing controlled wildlife without permission.
The source and paperwork for the sandalwood and Siamese rosewood were still being checked, reported Naewna. The suspects and all seized items were handed to investigators, and the inquiry would be expanded to linked networks in Thailand and abroad.
Elsewhere, two suspects were apprehended in Chachoengsao’s Tha Takiab district for hiding protected wood, including 34 logs of Siamese rosewood weighing over two tonnes and valued at nearly 1 million baht, in an abandoned house.
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