UAE exotic animal smuggler flees Thailand: police

Emirati man charged with attempting to smuggle a luggage-load of live endangered animals out of Thailand into the UAE has escaped.

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An Emirati man who was charged with attempting to smuggle a luggage-load of live endangered animals on a first-class flight out of Thailand has escaped from the country, immigration police told the AFP news agency yesterday.

NM, 36, was detained on May 13 by undercover officers at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport after animals, including four leopard cubs, a Malayan sun bear, a baby marmoset and a baby red-cheeked gibbon were discovered at the airport.

He was forbidden from leaving the country but flew to the UAE on May 23, immigration police said.