The seeming impunity under which Vixay Keosavang of Laos operates his wildlife laundering business is perplexing. To understand one needs remember where and how he operates. In come massive amounts of ivory or tiger meat and rhino horn. Out go legal exports.
Though the leadership of the reclusive communist Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos mostly operates beyond the view of the outside world, for a long time the generals selling off the timber in the south have exercised what is an outsized influence. They have decades long relationships with the Vietnamese generals and business people that goes far beyond money. They are untouchable.
Logging trucks line up at the exit to Vietnam West of Lak Sao despite a law banning all timber exports.
Geographically the province of Bolikhamsai is ideally situated to turn illegal endangered species into legally grown animal product exports. A long border with Thailand along the Mekong, lends access to the shipping containers and busy airports of a modern country that imports and exports from around the world. On the other side is Vietnam a country perhaps more accepting of the idea of eating exotic animals or using them for folk medicines. Vietnam itself has a busy export economy.
A part of Vixay's business was exposed when a sharp customs official in Thailand suspected the tiny Thai prostitute posing as a hunter couldn't have shot a rifle of sufficient caliber to kill a legal rhinoceros as claimed.
It turned out the claims for hunting and also the paper work of the supposed legal hunt were both bogus. Despite being tied to that smuggling operation Vixay continues to operate freely, in Laos, no one can touch him.
Last week Thomas Fuller, Asian corespondent for the NYT, published a story on all this and animal blogs have been het up ever since.
The Price of Ivory NYT