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| This handout photo taken on June 9, 2013 and released by Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program on June 10 shows a slow loris in a private zoo on the outskirts of Kandang, a town in Sumatra’s Aceh province, where animals are displayed for visitors and buyers. (AFP Photo/Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program/Paul Hilton) |
Jakarta. The special crimes directorate of the National Police has closed down a business trading in endangered animal parts, arresting its owner.
“The person is the owner of the ‘Golden Shop’ in Jalan Pluit Timur Raya, North Jakarta, with the initials L.W.,” Sr. Comr. Alex Mandalika, the deputy director of the economic crimes unit, said on Friday. “He has been charged under the 1990 Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation Law.”
L.W. faces up to five years in jail, but only a relatively modest maximum fine of Rp 100 million ($9,000). His store allegedly sold tigers’ teeth, shark fins, turtle shells and tobacco pipes made of ivory. Police confiscated several tigers’ teeth and 27 ivory pipes.
“They were sold expensively in rupiah and dollar denominations,” National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said. “The owner also had an online store at www.jakartagoldenkong.com.” Smuggling and trade in endangered animals is rampant in Indonesia and neighboring countries.
Last month, Philippines authorities said they seized nearly 100 exotic animals smuggled into the south of the country, the second such haul in just two weeks. A total of 93 animals from Indonesia and Australia were seized by maritime police in the waters off the island of Mindanao and included vulnerable and critically endangered species.
Among the creatures confiscated were 66 wild birds including a rare Pesquet’s parrot — found only in the New Guinea highlands — as well as assorted reptiles and mammals, including a long-beaked echidna, also native to New Guinea.
The seizure came just a week after wildlife officers, also in the southern Philippines, found almost 100 similar animals from Australia and Indonesia being transported by van to Manila.
In January, Aceh Police said they confiscated specimens of protected wildlife that had been preserved to be sold to collectors. In that case police arrested two people on charges of trading in protected animals.
The stuffed animals seized included two Sumatran tigers, a honey bear, a leopard, a hornbill, a clouded leopard, a muntjac or barking deer, antelopes and two golden cats.
At the time, the Aceh Police said investigators would move to expand the case. Based on information received from the suspects, the preserved animals were meant to be sold to a specific network of buyers of preserved animals. News of further arrests has, however, not been forthcoming.
Police officers said that stuffed Sumatran tigers sell for around Rp 80 million, while a clouded leopard is worth around Rp 20 million. Twice last year Jakarta Police raided warehouses of stuffed protected wildlife, including Sumatran tigers, leopards, deer and antelopes.
