249kg of pangolin scales seized by Shanghai customs

Around 249 kilograms of pangolin scales were confiscated by customs officials at the Pudong International Airport—making this the largest ever seizure of animal products in the city.

Pangolins, for those unfamiliar, are scale-covered mammals sometimes referred to as a scaly anteaters. They're rare, adorable and hunted in China for their tough armor, which is believed by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners to help cure cancer and asthma, among other ailments. The creatures can fetch up to 5,000 yuan per kilogram.

This load of scales was transported in nine black suitcases, which were seized on March 27 after officials spotted the animal products in an X-ray scanning machine, Shanghai Customs said yesterday.

A man and woman were detained by officials while picking up the suitcases from the luggage claim area. They said they'd been paid by a man surnamed Feng, who was helping a partner in Nigeria to deliver the scales to China.

Just 10 days later, customs officials stopped another person attempting to smuggle 25 kilograms of pangolin scales for someone who was working for the same man in Nigeria, surnamed Qiu.

Source: shanghaiist.com

'Shocking' scale of pangolin smuggling revealed

By Ella DaviesReporter, BBC Nature

Official records show that pangolins are being illegally traded on a "shocking" scale, according to a report. The globally threatened animals are sought for their scales which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Annual seizures have been estimated at roughly 10,000 animals but experts warn the illegal trade is far greater Chinese enforcement officials worked with researchers from the UK to assess the extent of the problem.

Zhao-Min Zhou, from the Public Security Bureau for Forests in China's Yunnan province, worked with researchers from the University of Oxford to analyse official records of pangolins seized from smugglers.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

"The numbers of pangolins traded are shocking, and all the more so considering the pharmaceutical pointlessness of the trade. This trade is intolerably wasteful," said Prof Macdonald, director of the University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), and a co-author of the paper.

He praised the leadership of Mr Zhou in the study, which gives conservationists the first glimpse of official records of seizures. Read more

Source: bbc.co.uk

Pangolins under threat as black market trade grows

Endangered ... the plight of the pangolin is not helped by its low profile compared with threatened species such as elephants, lions and tigers. Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA

The scaly anteater is less well-known compared with other illegally hunted species, but it is highly prized by traffickers. Last year tens of thousands of elephants and hundreds of rhinos were slaughtered to meet the growing demands of illegal trade in wild animals. Largely centred on eastern Asia, this black market is also devouring hundreds of tigers, sharks, tortoises, snakes and other rare beasts. It's a flourishing trade, worth an estimated $19bn a year. But little attention is paid to the pangolin, or scaly anteater, one of the mammals that suffers most from such poaching.

Trade in the pangolin was banned worldwide in 2000, but the meat and supposed medicinal qualities of this unobtrusive animal – the only mammal to sport scales – have made it one of the most highly prized targets for traffickers in Asia. The meat is considered a great delicacy and many believe the scales can cure various diseases, including asthma and certain cancers, as well as boosting virility. Pangolins have become so rare that they may fetch as much as $1,000 a piece on the black market.

As a result, two out of four of the Asian species — the Sunda, or Malayan, pangolin, and its Chinese counterpart (respectively Manis javanica and Manis pentadactyla) — are endangered and the other two are near threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Two of the four African species are near threatened too. There are no figures for the number of specimens in existence worldwide, but the experts warn that their disappearance would alter the ecosystem of tropical forests, due to the rise in the number of ants and termites. Read more..

Source: guardian.co.uk

Price of a Pangolin Sold in 2013

 

Pangolins were being sold on the black market in Asia at prices as high as $1,000 for the entire pangolin.

The pangolin is considered to be a delicacy in Asia and is scales are used for various medicinal purposes.

In a span of 18 months, intelligence reports claim that a criminal trafficking organization in Malaysia captured 22,000 pangolins to sell on the black market.

In Vietnam, between 40,000 to 60,000 pangolins were believed to have been caught by traffickers in 2011.

(Additional prices of endangered animals.)

Source: havocscope.com

The Big Business of Animal Trafficking

The animal trafficking trade is worth US$10 billion (S$14 billion) to US$20 billion a year, just behind illegal arms and drugs but marked by the same kind of global gang networks, official corruption and cross-border money transfers. And South-east Asia is a major player because of its rich biodiversity.

THE flapping of wings and unusually high floor mats gave the game away, but inquisitive Customs officers were still taken aback when they searched the Singapore-registered car at Woodlands Checkpoint in December last year and found 60 jambuls and magpies making an almighty racket. Same story last August when officers unearthed 50 oriental white-eye song birds – or mata puteh in Malay – hidden beneath trays of otak otak by an Indonesian man arriving at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

These birds are so popular as pets, they can fetch up to $150 each. The discovery of these two amateurish, low-level traffickers threw a tiny beam of light on what has become a vast criminal enterprise linking the jungles of South-east Asia and Africa to the private zoos of billionaires, clinics peddling traditional medicine and restaurants with wildlife on the menu. The trade rarely makes headlines yet it is worth around US$10 billion (S$14 billion) to US$20 billion a year, just behind illegal arms and drugs and marked by the same kind of global gang networks, official corruption and cross-border money transfers.

Globalisation is partly to blame. Increasing affluence and ease of communication and travel have helped make the illicit trade in rare creatures more rampant than ever, say experts. Those luckless smugglers caught at Singapore checkpoints also point to another feature of the trade – the importance of South-east Asia. The region, particularly China, is one of the traffickers’ global hot spots thanks to its rich biodiversity, a penchant for wildlife in food and traditional medicine, and a desire among increasingly wealthy people for exotic pets.

Mr Chris Shepherd, senior programme officer at Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network linked to the World Wide Fund for Nature, says: “It’s getting worse. I have never seen it this bad and I have been doing this job for 18 years.

“As species get rarer, the price goes up and they are more sought after.” The Canadian based at Traffic’s head office near Kuala Lumpur adds: “There is a growing demand in South-east Asia for pet reptiles and birds. This didn’t use to be an issue but it’s becoming more and more fashionable, as is eating wild meat such as owls and snakes.” Traffickers are in a constant battle of wits with the authorities across the world who have passed a welter of laws protecting wildlife. But despite the good intentions, the sheer size of the black market and the demand it is meeting are hard to counter.

The traffickers’ wish list is long and varied, and driven in large part by the rarity value. Bears, pangolins, long-tail macaques and turtles are among the top traded animals in the region, but a simple list does not hint at the cruelty the trade can involve. Malayan Sun bears and Asian Black bears are wanted for their bile. A needle is stuck into a bear’s gall bladder and bile siphoned off to be used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat ailments from fevers to heart disease – even though many TCM doctors say a plant can be used instead.

These bears often die from their injuries or develop enormous tumours that eventually kill them. Luckier bears make it to rescue centres across the region, including three-legged ones that have been caught in snares or had their feet hacked off to make bear-paw soup. Pangolins are in such high demand as a delicacy and for their scales, which are used to treat liver ailments in TCM, that they are trafficked from Africa as South-east Asia’s population is depleted.

 

Pangolins are now being shipped from Madagascar, Sumatra, Borneo and Palawan to mainland Asia and up to China. A variety of tortoises and freshwater turtles are smuggled around the region for pets or food while the sea turtle eggs are eaten as aphrodisiacs. Long-tailed macaques, unlike other targeted animals, do not come under the protection of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) and so have no added protection. They are the No. 1 primate used in medical research and many are trafficked with false papers to the United States and China while others are eaten locally.

Cites is at the forefront of efforts to curb the illegal trade in animals. Singapore, like other Asean countries, is party to Cites, which acts to control trade in 25,000 plant and 5,000 animal species through a licensing system. It has devised a scale of at-risk animals. Appendix I species are those threatened with extinction and trading is allowed only in exceptional circumstances. Trade of Appendix II animals must be controlled in order to maintain their survival, while Appendix III refers to species protected in one country which has asked Cites to help control their trade. Trading of these species must be done with permits.

Each country appoints its own authority to enforce Cites, so it is only as effective as the country’s will and power to act. Although many South-east Asian nations have strong laws on the books, enforcement can be rare or weak. Cites also has a loophole. With the right paperwork, the rarest of animals can be traded with impunity as long as they were bred in captivity. This has led to wide-scale “laundering” of animals, according to Mr Shepherd. “What’s happening is wild caught animals are exported as captive-bred with forged paperwork. In many cases, getting something from the wild is much cheaper than following all the regulations and the risk of getting caught is low,” he says.

“For example, spiny turtles captive bred in Indonesia don’t reach maturity until they are 10. Then they lay two eggs and the international market value is not high, only US$25 to US$30. “Who’s going to look at that and think it’s a good idea as a business prospect? But to catch from the wild costs just a few dollars; that’s where the profit comes in.” A more local approach to tackling the issue comes in the form of the Asean-Wildlife Enforcement Network (WEN) launched in December 2005 and headquartered in Bangkok. It involves police, Customs and environment agencies from the 10 Asean countries trying to stop cross-border trade.

Senior officer Manop Lauprasert says the network hopes all the Asean nations will develop a task force such as those seen in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. The network also hopes for bilateral border agreements between China and Vietnam to stop trafficking. “We work with China, which is doing some good things, and, although they are not in Asean, we would like to include them in future meetings,” he says, adding that Singapore’s role could be to help fund Asean-WEN which is currently supported by the US Agency for International Development.

Between January and March this year, it reported 19 law enforcement actions involving more than 5,659 live and 61,500 dead animals, animal parts and derivatives. It has recovered 2.7 tonnes of wildlife with a minimum estimated value of US$4.5 million on the black market. This work has resulted in 17 related arrests across five countries. Last year, there were 129 law enforcement actions by South-east Asian authorities, resulting in 156 arrests and 45 convictions across seven countries. More than 18,540 animals were recovered alive. In total, over 267 tonnes of wildlife and derivative products were confiscated, with a minimum estimated black market value of US$40 million.

 

It has also run awareness projects in Laos and Bangkok and now in Vietnam, where an English-language billboard has been placed on the road to Hanoi’s international airport to remind people that wildlife trafficking is illegal. Singapore is a key player in the enforcement process. It is known to have strict  laws, but that can put it at a disadvantage in the fight against animal trafficking. A stamp from Singapore’s checkpoints authority is seen as a validation of whatever is transported, so the shipment is less likely to hit trouble further along the journey. Fake papers about captive breeding, imports that exceed the exporting countries’ quotas for particular species and undetected illegal wildlife can all slip through in this way.

Singapore is also a growing market for smugglers. Data from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), which oversees 25 checkpoints, shows that incidents have tripled. “In 2009, smuggling of items controlled by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority saw a three-fold increase compared to 2008, registering the highest jump in these detections. From 1,800 cases in 2008, the number ballooned to 5,900 last year,” says an ICA spokesman, who adds that smugglers are getting more innovative. “Our officers face the challenge to look out for the slightest signs of tampering on vehicles, and suspicious behaviour of travellers.” While smugglers are caught, a stroll along Serangoon North Pet Walk shows that hundreds of birds, rare and endangered, from all over the world are on sale.

“It is likely that some of these birds were imported as captive-bred, but were in fact taken from the wild in the exporting countries,” says Mr Shepherd. They must be bred in captivity and have the correct paperwork to be sold in this way, but Mr Shepherd doubts all the birds meet the criteria. “Some of the birds in the shop exhibit behaviour of wild-caught birds in captivity such as pulling out feathers and cowering at the back of the cage,” he says. When contacted, the shop declines to comment. Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) data shows that 1,763 birds were smuggled into Singapore last year, making them the main illegally traded category used as pets.

This is a huge increase from the 2008 figure of 81 but well below the 6,962 found in 2005. The AVA says the 2009 spike was due to the number of birds found in each incident. Fish like humphead wrasse and Asian arowana are also popular – 50 were detected last year, followed by reptiles such as lizards and turtles and mammals like sugar gliders. So far this year there have been 65 wildlife enforcement cases, with one prosecution resulting in a $6,000 fine. Also, 34 individuals have had fines compounded between $100 and $2,500, and 23 warning letters were issued. All animals rescued by the AVA are handed to the Singapore Zoo, Jurong BirdPark or Underwater World.

AVA officers conduct regular workshops for ICA and Police Coast Guard officers on species identification and other factors to look for. Despite the rise in smuggling, only 19 people were convicted of smuggling live wildlife between 2005 and last year. Penalties ranged from fines of up to $159,000 and up to eight weeks in jail. In June, a vendor at the Singapore Food Expo was caught selling bear gall bladders at $700 each following a tip-off to Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres). He was fined $2,500 for possession of an illegally imported “bear” gall bladder which was found to be fake in laboratory tests. In March, the AVA seized 320 items being sold as tiger parts from 30 antique and jewellery shops, also following work by Acres.

Six of the shops were found to be selling real tiger parts. Twenty-six of the shops paid composition fines of between $500 and $3,000, while the remaining four were served with warning letters. An AVA spokesman says there is no difference in punishment if the items are fake if they are being sold as genuine. The Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre, a first in Singapore, began operating last August. It can take in reptiles and amphibians rescued from the illegal wildlife trade as well as injured native reptiles and amphibians. It has rescued 577 wild animals – 36 from illegal trading, including sugar gliders, pygmy hedgehogs, star tortoises, pig-nosed turtles, green iguanas, soft-shell turtles and a common snapping turtle. It has also saved 541 injured native species.

Acres executive director Louis Ng says although there is a constant illegal wildlife trade in Singapore, it is not an endemic problem. “The Government has improved wildlife protection legislation significantly. Penalties for smuggling and possession of endangered species were increased from $5,000 per species to $50,000 – sending out a strong deterrent message that wildlife crime will not be tolerated in Singapore.” He adds that the recent tiger trade busts were successful thanks to Acres’ liaison with the AVA. Yet despite Singapore’s strict penalties, the bear gall incident at the food expo shows the appetite for contraband is high.

Instances like the use of a tiger pelt on the front cover of 8 Days magazine in February, the market in tiger parts and the rush to buy bear gall bladder in June show there is demand for endangered animals locally which in turn fuels this illegal trade. “As you go up the scale, prices and business become more lucrative. In places like the Middle East and China, people are prepared to pay a lot of money for an orang utan or turtle,” says Dr Karmele Llano Sanchez, a vet at the International Animal Rescue Centre’s Jakarta office. “It is a never-ending cycle. If you are not punished for doing something illegal, you just do it again – much like the drugs or weapons trade.”

Where the markets are

THAILAND
Tiger parts sold for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) fetch the highest sums; a tiger can fetch up to a million baht (S$42,000). Reptiles like turtles and tortoises, chameleons and snakes as well as pangolins and marine species such as coral, fish and seahorses are trafficked in volume. Ivory from Africa is also carved by Thai craftsmen and exported to China and Japan. This is illegal. Ivory from Thai elephants can only be sold in Thailand and it cannot be taken out of the country, although most tourists do not know this. Thailand is a member of Asean-WEN, but law enforcement often lacks manpower and resources. Tourists are often reminded that it is illegal to buy endangered species, but Bangkok’s Chatuchak market has many endangered animals for sale.

CAMBODIA
The most targeted animals are long-tail macaques, pangolins, bears and turtles, which are all used for medical research, food and TCM. There is a grey area as macaques and crocodiles can be farmed but correct papers are needed to move them. Often they are caught in the wild and shipped with false papers. Trafficked animals usually head to Vietnam and on to China. Although it used to be commonplace to see wildlife for sale at markets or restaurants, enforcement efforts have made this rarer. Laws were strengthened in 2002 with more species added to the outlawed list.

VIETNAM
Pangolins, turtles, snakes and long-tailed macaques are traded illegally but the most valuable trafficked animals are tigers, rhinos and bears, all used mainly for medicine. A countrywide ban on new bears in farms was imposed in 2005 but if a farmer already owned bears, he could keep them for the animals’ lifespan but extraction or selling bile is not allowed. Bears must also be microchipped. Bears live up to 30 years in the wild but only five to seven years on farms due to much poorer nutrition and conditions. If an owner is caught with unchipped bears, he is fined 30 million Vietnamese dong (S$2,100) for each animal but can keep them. There are no documented prosecutions for selling bear bile.

A Vietnamese group, Education for Nature Vietnam, set up a hotline in 2005. It fielded fewer than 10 calls a month in the early days but now handles 20 to 30 calls a day, with more than 90 per cent of calls from the Vietnamese. 

MALAYSIA
The country is considered a major illegal animal trade hub with species flowing from Indonesia and Africa towards China. However, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks or Perhilitan and NGOs alike believe that an update to the 1972 Wildlife Act, passed on Monday, as well as earlier changes made to the Cites Act make the law much stronger and should act as a deterrent to would-be traffickers. Malaysia still has large blocks of forest so it is ideally suited for sustaining tigers in the wild. Five years ago there were 5,000 tigers but now there are only 3,000.

INDONESIA
It has one of the world’s largest treasure troves of biodiversity. The World Conservation Union lists as many as 147 mammals, 114 birds and 91 fish among the world’s most endangered species. The abundance of wildlife has also proved a curse, with the vast archipelago an epicentre of illegal wildlife trade. Jakarta is home to three of the world’s largest bird markets, where many endangered and protected species of birds, reptiles and fish are traded freely.

The non-profit organisation Profauna says around 115,000 parrots, including the highly endangered palm cockatoo, are caught every year in the wilds of Papua and Maluku and sold in such markets. There are laws forbidding illegal trading in Indonesia, yet there is a lack of proper enforcement. For example, a slow loris, an animal protected under Indonesian law, can be caught in the wild for about 25,000 rupiah (S$4) and sold in a market for between 250,000 rupiah and a million rupiah. Wealthy Indonesians believe owning a rare bird species is a symbol of good luck and social prestige.

Source: The Straits Times

171 pangolins bound for Thailand seized

Kelantan Wildlife and National Parks Department assistant officer Cosmas Ngau (right) and colleague Mohamad Daud with some of the pangolins seized from smugglers near the border. Pic by Adnan Mohamad

KOTA BARU: STATE police prevented 171 pangolins worth  RM340,000 from ending up in cooking pots in Thailand with the arrest of five men on Saturday.

The men, aged between 30 and 45, were detained in two operations in Jeli and Bachok. Police said in Jeli, they detained two men at a roadblock near the Mara Junior Science College at 4am and seized 16 pangolins from them. They also seized the four-wheel-drive vehicle the duo were in.

Some 20 hours later, another police team in Bachok seized 155 pangolins packed into nets from three men while they were at an unnumbered house in Kampung Alur Tok Majan. Another 4WD vehicle was also seized here. The pangolins (manis javanica) and the five local men were later handed over to the state Wildlife and National Parks Department.

Department assistant officer Cosmas Ngau said the pangolins were believed to have been brought into Kelantan from other states several hours before they were seized. "We believe the pangolins were being smuggled to Thailand separately through Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah and Rantau Panjang."

Ngau said pangolin flesh, popular as a delicacy and for its perceived "health benefits" could fetch up to RM350 and RM380 per kg on the black market. He said the seizure in Bachok was the biggest over the past five years. "One of the pangolins seized in Bachok is also the biggest seized by us so far. The male pangolin weighed 10kg."

The rare ant-eating animal feeds a mainly Asian market, where pangolins are eaten as delicacies and their scales sought after for various remedies. Pangolin scales are made chiefly of keratin, a substance believed to have curative value in traditional Asian medicine despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

Source:  nst.com,my

Hundreds of Pangolins Seized in First Four Months of 2012

Between January and April of this year, media reported on at least fourteen pangolin busts worldwide — and there have already been two others this month.

The events took place across eight countries around the globe and saw the confiscation of an estimated minimum of 600-700 pangolins.

• January: 5
• February: 2
• March: 4
• April: 3
• May: 2 (so far)

Including the two seizures made so far this month (one in Malaysia and one in India), the total may even be as high as 700-800 or more.

Most of these cases involved whole carcasses or live animals, but pangolin scales alone were also seized once in Nepal (seven kilos) and twice in the Philippines (for a total of 102 kg).

The largest known seizure in 2012 took place in Thailand, when 180 of the animals were confiscated from a smuggler in January.

It’s possible that the haul may be outweighed by a March bust in Vietnam that included over 5,000 kg of frozen pangolin and iguana carcasses, but authorities did not detail what percentage of their seizure was comprised of pangolins. Read more at pangolins.org

Malaysian Maritime saved 26 pangolins from ending in cooking pots

Image Source: mmea.gov.my

Image Source: mmea.gov.my

Alor Gajah: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) saved 26 pangolins from ending in cooking pots after detaining two men at the Pulau Hanyut waters here last night.

Kuala Linggi MMEA Capt (Maritime) Abu Bakar Idris said the two men, aged 40 and 41, were in a boat at 8.15pm and tried to escape when spotted by the MMEA vessel that was on patrol in the area.

Abu Bakar said when spotted by the MMEA, the boat sped off to the Malaysia/Indonesia border towards Banda Hilir but the MMEA vessel managed to intercept the boat about five nautical miles from Pulau Hanyut.

"Upon inspecting the boat, we found 26 sacks filled with pangolins while the duo failed to show any documents for the animals," he told reporters here today. He added that the suspects may have thrown a number of sacks into the sea to erase evidence.

Abu Bakar said initial investigations revealed that the pangolins, an exotic meat here, was worth RM50,000 and smuggled into the country from Indonesia to be sold in Melaka.

Source: NST

46 pangolins rescued from car boot

ALOR STAR: Forty-six pangolins, worth RM43,000, were saved from the cooking pot yesterday. The animals, which were bound for exotic food restaurants in a neighbouring country, were found in the boot of a Toyota Camry at a traffic light in Changlun near here at 8.30am. Kedah and Penang Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) officers had trailed the car for about 30km from the Hutan Kampung Toll Plaza near here.

The car driver pushed the officers away and fled the scene on foot when the Perhilitan team approached his vehicle. State Perhilitan director Rahim Ahmad said four of the pangolins were juveniles. Rahim said he believed that the pangolins were to be supplied to Thailand.

"Prior to the discovery, we conducted an investigation to locate the poacher following a tip-off from the public." Rahim said the department had lodged a report to seek the police's help in locating the suspect.

Pangolins are much sought after as exotic meat and it is believed the consignment was being smuggled to Thailand. Rahim said the pangolins would be released in the forest reserves of Pedu, Padang Terap and Ulu Muda.

Source: NST

Attempt to smuggle pangolins foiled

 

NINETY-FOUR pangolins believed to be bound for the cooking pots in the region were seized by the authorities at the cargo complex in Batu Maung, Penang. The importer had shipped the animals in boxes from Sabah and declared them as crabs.

However, checks by the Penang Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) and the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services (Maqis) found that 43 of the 49 boxes contained pangolins. State Perhilitan director Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim said they were still investigating where the protected species worth about RM106,000 were heading. “We believe the animals will be sold in foreign markets where the demand for exotic meat is high. “The price of the pangolin meat can go up to RM220 per kg.

“We have not arrested anyone yet. But we have information on the importer and exporter,” he said at the Perhilitan office in Jalan Gurdwara, George Town. The smuggling attempt was foiled at about 12.30pm on Thursday in an operation led by state Maqis chief Abdul Hamid Sulaiman and Perhilitan officer Tang Teong Kim at the Kuala Lumpur Airport Services’ (KLAS) cargo complex.

Jamalun said the case was being investigated under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716) and if convicted, the offender would face a fine between RM50,000 and RM100,000 or a jail term up to three years. In a separate case, the department’s licensing unit led by officer Rofley Ambuka raided a petshop in Bukit Mertajam and found 103 turtles not listed in its registry.

There were 40 Southeast Asian Box Turtles (Cuora amboinensis), 41 Giant Asian Pond Turtles (Heosemys grandis) and 22 Black Marsh Turtles (siebenrockiella crassicollis) with a total market price of RM7,000.

Source: thestar.com

Luxury car-go for smuggling

KUALA LUMPUR: A casual observer would be none the wiser seeing a tricked-out luxury car speeding down the highway. That is exactly what traffickers hope for as they transport their illicit cargo of endangered wildlife. Perhilitan, the Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department, said it had come across quite a number of cases of Malaysian-registered luxury cars being modified to hide the animals. “Transporting the animals using lorries is the more obvious choice while luxury cars don't usually arouse suspicion,” a Perhilitan spokesman said.

Traffickers are also getting smarter, switching modes of transport where it is least expected. The spokesman said the department had encountered cases where the luxury cars were driven from Johor to Kuantan in Pahang for the precious cargo to be transferred to a ship to be taken out of the country. Another tactic is to hide illegal wildlife by mixing them with products such as fish and vegetables while some traffickers try to pass off the animals as airline cargo, the spokesman said.

He said enforcement activities to stop animal smuggling are being hampered by information leaks, with “tontos” people working for syndicates monitoring the movement of Perhilitan officers. “We also have to deal with false tip-offs, getting information that is inaccurate and outdated,” said the spokesman, adding that the department urgently needed more enforcement officers. “We have forwarded the request for more staff to the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.

“In the meantime, we have to ensure our staff are trained to deal with international wildlife crime, with the help of the police, Customs Department, the Anti-Smuggling Unit and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency,” he said. To break the multi-million ringgit cycle of illegal wildlife trade, the Government is hitting smugglers where it hurts. The Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 spelled the end of token fines and slaps on the wrist for convicted wildlife traffickers.

Offenders now face fines of up to RM500,000 and mandatory jail time. The highest penalty imposed on a wildlife offender by the courts to date is a RM200,000 fine and one-day jail on an individual in Penang for possessing 135 pangolins in Feb 23 last year. From the time the Act took effect, the country saw a drastic drop in wildlife smuggling cases from about 3,500 cases a year from 2007 to 2010 to just 464 in 2011. 

While the sharp dip is proof that the heavy penalties under the new Act, coupled with intensified multi-agency operations, are working, the Perhilitan spokesman said the department has to be on its toes to keep up with the increasingly sophisticated methods used by the traffickers.

Source: thestar.com.my

Pangolin smugglers busted near Gerik

Just in time: Perhilitan officers rescuing the pangolins which were kept in blue plastic bags.

18 live pangolins were recovered from a car travelling along a highway in northern Malaysia towards the Thailand border 

The state Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) rescued 18 pangolins as the animals were being transported in a car.

Perhilitan officers spotted the car, a black Proton Perdana, at 2.30am as the vehicle overtook them on the East-West Highway near Gerik last Saturday.

“Based on its registration number, they identified the car as suspected of being involved in wildlife smuggling.

 “They trailed the car before apprehending the driver at a petrol station.

“Following a search they discovered the pangolins, which were kept in 16 blue-coloured plastic bags,” said the department’s spokesman in a press release on the same day of the arrest.

An adult passenger was also detained.

A report was then lodged at the Gerik police station whereupon the two male adults were remanded for further investigation. Under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, the offence carries a fine of not less than RM50,000 and not more than RM100,000 or a jail term of up to three years or both.

Perhilitan urged the public to alert the department any activity suspected of contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 at 1300-80-1010 or email pakp@wildlife.gov.my

Source: thestar.com.my

Malaysians caught smuggling pangolins

 

Two Malaysian men were arrested in southern Thailand on Monday for smuggling pangolins—an endangered anteater species– while passing through the inbound immigration border checkpoint in the Sadao district.

Forty-five pangolins, weighing over 100kg, were found in 24 net bags hidden under the back seat of the suspects’ vehicle.

The two men were identified as Mr Ahmad Ikram Bin Anuar and Muhamad Shaifol Bin Abidin.

The suspects were detained for questioning and told authorities that they had brought the wild animals from Malaysia in order to deliver them to customers in Thailand’s Sadao district.

Smuggling pangolins is against the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Source:  thailandtimes