Interpol praises India for arresting top turtle smuggler

The Interpol has praised India after the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department's State Tiger Strike Force (STSF) managed to arrest a turtle smuggler whose network was spread across several countries, MP forest officials said today.
The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Wildlife, Jitendra Agrawal, today informed that the Interpol, in a letter to the National Crime Records Bureau on February 7, praised India for arresting Manivannan Murugesan.
The STSF's head Ritesh Sarothiya told PTI that Murugesan was arrested from Chennai on January 31, following which it alerted other acountries about the arrest.
"Murugesan's arrest was important as he was ranked third in the world among the smugglers of rare breed turtles. He is a native of Singapore and his illegal trade is spread across Thailand, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, China and Madagascar," he said.

Agrawal said that the Interpol was tracking Murugesan for along time and it was the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department that shared information about him with other countries.