Wildlife officials arrested three Vietnamese men allegedly smuggling hundreds of animals through the Thai border.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation (DNP) received a tip from animal charity Watchdog Thailand Foundation about a 'suspicious' pickup leaving Sinthon Village in Bangkok on January 9.

The truck was reportedly supposed to head toward northern Thailand near its border with Laos, but made a detour to a house in the capital city instead.

Authorities followed the vehicle to Bangkok's Lat Phrao district, where they found three Vietnamese men unloading boxes with holes from the pickup truck.

The cardboard boxes were being stashed into a hidden compartment on the coach when police finally revealed themselves to arrest the alleged animal smugglers.

Officers identified the suspects as driver Nguyen Ngui Kui, 40, Nguyen Din Dai, 38, and Nguyen Thian Than, 39.

Police opened up the boxes and found more than 1,000 animals packed in cages, including pig-nosed turtles, several species of snakes and lizards, red-whiskered bulbuls, and Assam roofed turtles.

Some of the wildlife reportedly cost up to 123,000 THB (3,500 USD) on the market.

The Vietnamese men claimed they had bought the animals from the Chatuchak Weekend Market. They allegedly confessed they were paid to ship the boxes from Thailand to Laos, earning up to 700 THB (20 USD) per box.

The suspects were handed over to the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division and charged with violating the Wild Animal Preservation and Protection Act. They may face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to 500,000 THB (14,270 USD) or both.

Meanwhile, the seized animals are being taken care of by the DNP.

Thailand is a major transit hub for the illegal wildlife trade, with smugglers often transporting live animals to nearby China.

On December 5 last year, a Taiwanese tourist was detained for smuggling a prairie dog and two otters in his pants at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.

While on Christmas Day, a Korean tourist was arrested for trying to smuggle critically endangered tortoises at the Don Mueang International Airport, also in Bangkok.