16-year-old among 22 held over poaching in Malaysia

New Straits Times 31 Oct 09;

KUANTAN: Twenty-two people, including a minor, were arrested by the Pahang Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) during a nine-day operation which ended on Wednesday.

State Perhilitan director Khairiah Mohd Shariff said the department had solved 10 poaching cases with the arrests of the suspects, all males aged between 16 and 55.

"The teenager was arrested with six men when we stopped a four-wheel-drive vehicle on Saturday at 5.20am near the jungle at Kemasul, Bentong.

"We saw them behaving suspiciously," she said here yesterday.

Nine mouse deer and a skinned porcupine were found in the boot of their vehicle.

A total of 18 mouse deer, four white-breasted waterhen, six loaded guns, four knives and 88 animal traps were seized in the nine-day operation mounted by 79 Perhilitan personnel, she said. -- Bernama