Malaysia: Man who killed 15 endangered rhinos handed over to Nepali cops

The Star 10 Feb 15;

PETALING JAYA: Nepal’s most wanted fugitive rhino poacher in recent years has been deported back to his home country after being arrested by Malaysian police.

National Central Bureau/Interpol assistant director Supt Gan Thek Guan confirmed that Rajkumar Praja, 31, was deported to Nepal on Sunday.

“He was here for nine days illegally, and he came in (to Malaysia) with different documents,” he told The Star.

Gan said Rajkumar, who is wanted by Nepalese police, was escorted by the country’s officers.

He confirmed that Rajkumar’s poaching was done in Nepal, with none of his acts carried out here.

Further information would be revealed on Interpol’s website in a matter of days, he said.

In 2013, an Interpol Red Notice – or international wanted persons alert – was issued at Nepal’s request for Rajkumar.

He is currently wanted to serve a sentence of 15 years for poaching rhinos in central Nepal’s Chitwan National Park.

A report by Nepalese daily newspaper Kantipur said Rajkumar has been on the run since 2013, and was said to have killed 15 rhinos.

The park is believed to house most of the country’s 500-odd Indian rhinos, also known as the greater one-horned rhinoceros.

The Indian rhinoceros, classified as a “vulnerable” animal under the global IUCN Red List, can also be found in the northern parts of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

WWF-Malaysia (World Wildlife Fund) executive director Datuk Dr Dionysus Sharma said Nepal had a “sterling” track record in recent years making sure that there was no poaching there.

“What may happen is that poachers may look elsewhere if they still want to ply their trade,” Dr Dionysus said.

Wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic (South-East Asia) regional director Dr Chris Shepherd said it was good to see both Nepal and Malaysia cooperating against rhino horn traders.

The International Rhino Fede­ration website estimates that more than 3,200 of them are in India and Nepal, with the former having 85% of them.

Nepal’s most wanted wildlife criminal nabbed in Malaysia
New Straits Times 17 Feb 15;

LYON, France: Nepal’s most wanted wildlife criminal and the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, has been arrested in Malaysia following close international collaboration via Interpol channels.

Rajkumar Praja, the ringleader of a rhino poaching network in Nepal, is wanted to serve a 15-year sentence for rhino poaching and trading internationally in rhino horns. Nepali authorities requested a Red Notice, or international wanted persons alert, for the 31-year-old after he fled the country.

In 2013, Nepal police, with the support of the Nepalese Army and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, arrested a network of more than a dozen poachers in suspected killing of some 19 rhinos in the Chitwan National Park. Praja, however, managed to escape.

Information exchanged between the Interpol National Central Bureaus in Nepal and Malaysia on the case and Praja’s possible whereabouts eventually resulted in his arrest by the local police in January 2015, where he was found in possession of a fraudulent passport issued under a false name. He has since been returned to Nepal.

“What we have achieved with the arrest of Rajkumar Praja is a testament to how law enforcement agencies can utilise Interpol resources to share information and coordinate beyond national boundaries to combat transnational organised crime,” said director of the Nepal Police Central Investigation Bureau, Hemant Malla Thakuri.

“This arrest sends a strong message to criminals hiding in a foreign country that no matter where they are, they are not safe and will be caught one day,” he said.

Praja was a target of Interpol’s Operation Infra Terra in 2014. As Interpol’s first global fugitive operation focused on criminals wanted for environmental crimes, Infra Terra targeted 139 fugitives wanted by 36-member countries for illegal fishing, wildlife trafficking, illegal trade and disposal of waste, illegal logging and trading in illicit ivory and more.

Other high-profile targets of Operation Infra Terra who have been arrested as a result of the global operation include suspected illegal ivory trader Ben Simasiku and Feisal Mohamed Ali, the alleged leader of an ivory smuggling ring.

Interpol’s activities to investigate and disrupt wildlife crime networks operating in Asia come under its Project Predator. The project aims to support and enhance the governance and law enforcement capacity for the conservation of Asian big cats and is primarily funded by the US Agency for International Development.