Two baby orangutans were rescued from an illegal animal smuggler in Thailand.

The simian siblings, Christopher and Stefan, were found crammed in plastic crates during a handoff at a fuel station in Bangkok on May 15.

Police were acting on intelligence about the alleged smuggling operation when they swooped in to arrest suspected wildlife trafficker Thanasit, 47, in a sting operation.

Heart-wrenching footage shows the tiny primates dozing off inside the plastic containers next to baby bottles full of milk. They are believed to have been born to the same mother in Indonesia before being torn from their home and smuggled across the Thai border with Malaysia.

Christopher is thought to be around a year old, while Stephan was a mere one month old, authorities said. Thanasit claimed he was hired to deliver both of them for 300,000 baht (6,800 GBP) each.

Atthapol Charoenchansa, Director-General of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), said the arrest was made amid investigations into a wildlife trafficking gang.

He said: 'The sting operation began on May 12, after an undercover agent received a call to purchase an orangutan for 255,000 baht. The agent was told to go to a gas station in Lat Phrao, where the gang would hand over the animal. Therefore, we coordinated with the relevant teams to jointly arrest the suspect.'

Police said Thanasit will be charged with 'possession of controlled wildlife without declaring possession to an officer'. They are interrogating him today in order to uncover the ringleaders of the wildlife trafficking group.

Police Colonel Sombat Malai, acting superintendent of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division 1, said the orangutan siblings were taken to the DNP to be monitored. They will be released once they are healthy.

All three species of orangutan are critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, with habitat destruction and hunting among the major threats to their population.

Thailand is a key hub for wildlife smuggling due to its strategic location, with porous borders to other Southeast Asian countries. China is often the final destination for the smuggled animals.

(1 GBP = 44.13 THB)