Recently, Thai law enforcement agencies were able to successfully stop a case of illegal smuggling of rhino horns into Thailand using digital intelligence technology.

The investigators were able to trace one of the smugglers flying into Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand, which then led them to finding an active member of the Hydra Syndicate which was involved in the smuggling of elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts to dealers in China and Vietnam.

Petcharat “Eddy” Sangchai, a former police general and the Thailand director of international anti-poaching NGO Freeland who was involved in the operations explained that “When we busted them, we seized the rhino horns along with the phone that both the suspects carried.”

The cell phones discovered in the operations were then attached to a product devised by the Israeli digital intelligence firm Cellebrite which is known as a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (“UFED”). The UEFD allowed the law enforcement to unlock the cellphones and extract relevant data. It was discovered from the phone data extracted that an officer manning the office of the Department of National Parks Plant and Animal Quarantine at Suvarnabhumi Airport had been in contact with the member of the Hydra Syndicate, and the evidence found in the call data has allowed investigators to detain the Hydra Syndicate member within 24 hours after the smuggler landed in Thailand.

Both the smuggler and Hydra Syndicate member were convicted as a result of the investigation are now currently serving a four-year terms at prison.

“Typically, the result for many years in wildlife investigations has been that agencies manage to seize the illegally traded wildlife products but not the trafficker”, said Steven Galster, the founder of Freeland, “the use of Cellebrite has helped us explain to the law enforcement agencies to not stop with a seizure or low-level arrest and to consider the possibility that they are a part of an organised criminal network.”

The senior manager at Cellebrite, Fendy Chandra, also explained that the use of digital forensics can be important in cases relating to, amongst others, wildlife trafficking, since it often involves syndication and communication occurring along a certain supply chain which would certainly require the assistance of cell phones and digital devices. There would thus be a digital record of all the activity, whether in the devices or in cloud.

The UFED technology was also successfully deployed in at least eight other cases of poaching in Thailand. As explained by Steven Galster, the use of digital forensics has become a standard part of an investigation and the use of this technology not only speeds up the investigation, but also helps turn the investigation into an actual case.

There are other examples worldwide where different forms of technology have been deployed to assist in combatting illegal wildlife trade. For example, ChimpFace proposes the use of facial recognition technology to identify pictures uploaded on social media to track chimpanzees which are being sold online as a result of trafficking related activities. The Nature Intelligence System, designed by Roger Williams University, University of Massachusetts Boston and Conservation International, is a platform that automatically analyses shipping documents sent to port authorities and identify questionable shipments which may relate to illegal wildlife trade. The launch of the “Wildlife Guardian” mobile application in China is also currently used by customs agents to identify animal products at the border.

Courtesy of Nicole Liang.

Main Source: The Independent