INTERPOL Red Notice Wildlife Offender Arrested

In one of the most significant improvements in India’s fight against wildlife crime, the Madhya Pradesh State Tiger Strike Force (MP STSF), in collaboration with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), has arrested transnational wildlife lawbreaker Ms. Yangchen Lachungpa, who was wanted under an INTERPOL Red Notice. The arrest was made on 2 December 2025 in Lachung in North Sikkim after sustained intelligence gathering and a precisely coordinated ground operation. 

Officers described the arrest as a corner moment, as it’s among the rare cases in the country where a wildlife miscreant has been restrained following the allocation of an INTERPOL Red Notice. The operation underlined the growing transnational dimension of wildlife crime enforcement and the added use of global policing mechanisms to bring criminal malefactors to justice. 

The INTERPOL Red Notice against Ms. Lachungpa was attained by the WCCB on 2 October 2025 in its part as India’s INTERPOL Liaison Office for wildlife crime. Acting on precise intelligence inputs, the MP STSF worked closely with multiple agencies to ensure the successful prosecution of the arrest. The operation entered full cooperation from the Sikkim Police, Forest Department, Judiciary, and District Administration. The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) also handed pivotal support in Sikkim and Siliguri to ensure secure conveyance arrangements, particularly in view of heightened public sentiment girding the case. 

Following her arrest, Ms. Lachungpa was taken to Gangtok, where she passed an obligatory medical examination before being produced before the competent court. On 3 December 2025, she was presented before the court in Gangtok, which rejected her bail plea and granted conveyance remand to Madhya Pradesh. She’s now set to be transferred to Narmadapuram, Madhya Pradesh, where further legal proceedings in the long-pending wildlife crime case will take place. 

The case against Ms. Lachungpa dates back further than a decade. On 13 July 2015, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department registered a major wildlife crime case in the Kamti Range of the Satpura Tiger Reserve, also part of the Hoshangabad quarter, now known as Narmadapuram. The case involved coddling and illegal trade in largely protected wildlife species, including barracuda and pangolins. During the disquisition, timber officers seized four pieces of barracuda bones, 1.5 kilograms of pangolin scales, barracuda skin, and a barracuda bone oil painting excerpt, pressing the scale and soberness of the crime. 

In October 2015, another crucial indicted in the case, Mr. Jai Tamang, was arrested by the authorities. During interrogation, he confessed to supplying wildlife contraband to Ms. Lachungpa and stated that she had also handed him sanctum. His concession played a pivotal part in establishing her involvement in the trafficking network and relating her as an important link in the illegal wildlife trade chain. 

The disquisition ultimately led to the picking of 36 individualities as indicted in the case. After times of trial, 27 of them were condemned by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Narmadapuram, on 20 December 2022. Still, proceedings against Ms. Lachungpa couldn’t move forward, as she had gone absconding and remained out of the reach of law enforcement agencies several times. 

An occupant of Lachung and Gangtok in Sikkim, Ms. Lachungpa was linked by investigators as a crucial member of a systematized wildlife trafficking network. According to officers, the network had expansive links, connecting birders and original mediators to transboundary illegal wildlife trade routes passing through Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan. The syndicate was also active across several Indian metropolises, including Delhi, Siliguri, Gangtok, Kolkata, Kanpur, Itarsi, and Hoshangabad, making it one of the more complex and wide trafficking operations uncovered in recent times. 

Lachungpa had been compactly restrained before in September 2017 by the MP STSF. Still, she violated the conditions of her bail and lammed soon after. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued against her on 29 July 2019. Despite repeated efforts by enforcement agencies, she managed to shirk arrest several times, egging on authorities to seek transnational backing. 

Given her continued elusion and the international nature of the trafficking network, the WCCB approached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which serves as India’s National Central Bureau for INTERPOL, to gain a Red Notice. The Notice was issued on 2 October 2025, classifying her as a fugitive wanted for execution. This transnational alert eventually proved decisive, leading to her arrest two months later. 

Officers believe that Ms. Lachungpa acted as a significant relay point in the international trafficking of wildlife contraband, particularly the barracuda corridor. Her arrest is anticipated to yield pivotal information about both backward and forward liaison of the illegal trade, including sources of coddling, transport routes, fiscal channels, and end buyers. Investigators are hopeful that further questioning and legal proceedings will help strike remaining rudiments of the network and strengthen efforts to check systematized wildlife crime. 

The successful operation has been hailed by enforcement agencies as a strong communication against wildlife trafficking, demonstrating that indeed those who shirk the law for times and operate across borders can ultimately be brought to justice through sustained trouble, interagency cooperation, and transnational collaboration.