Wildlife Traffickers

Largest big cat seizure takes place in Khaga India in 2000 - EIA Tiger Skin Trail

Tiger and leopard skins confiscated during

Operation Prey. (Photo credit: Interpol)

The illegal wildlife trade encompasses all types of live animals ranging from big cats and monkeys to tropical birds and reptiles. Even turtles and exotic fish are caught by poachers and trafficked across regional and international borders to consumers seeking pets, exotic cuisine, and folk medicines made from the bones, brains, teeth, or other parts of unique species. Individuals, regional syndicates, and transnational organizations (PDF) around the world participate in the illegal trafficking and sale of exotic animals and protected species without respect to local environmental sustainability, the safety of the animal, international law, or legitimate businesses that play by the rules.

Successful syndicates and transnational organizations use their extensive business networks to improve the odds that shipments of illicit wildlife products will reach their final destination. These groups may use common tactics including forging documents, hiding illegal goods inside other products, and bribing customs officials and other authorities. However they also use traditional business methods in managing their supply chains and, directly and indirectly, establishing strong business relationships with accomplices, facilitators, and suppliers with some groups even negotiate guarantees (page 10) and fees for each type of wildlife product (page 12). In one example from 2016 (pages 10-11), undercover investigators were told by a trafficking syndicate operating out of Shuidong, in China’s Guangdong province, that Mozambican and Tanzanian suppliers of illegal ivory would reimburse the Shuidong-based syndicate in full for a 3,000 kilogram (6,613 pound) ivory shipment (up to $900,000) if it were confiscated by authorities along the way (page 11). Chinese syndicates which are able to insure that customs officials are paid off along the entire multi-port route a shipment may take from an African port to its final destination in Asia, and then be collected by a reliable third-party courier, are said to be able to provide a “dragon service” (pages 10-11). This level of comprehensive supply chain management further decreases the risks involved in the illegal wildlife trafficking trade and provides a more reliable service. In turn, this helps create financial stability for the illegally operating business.

With robust networks in place, some of individuals and wildlife trafficking organizations also take part in cross-over crimes (PDF) that include poaching animals and plants; falsifying hunting or fishing licenses; human trafficking; trafficking firearms or ammunition, trafficking drugs and counterfeit pharmaceuticals; illegal mining; and smuggling undeclared products to avoid taxes. In destabilized regions of the world armed militia groups (page 8) have been identified as profiting from these endeavors by direct control of resources and illegal distribution or through illegal taxation on local peoples attempting to sell their goods (pages 7-8).

The United Nations Environment Programme and Interpol estimate that the global illegal wildlife trade, illegal mining, illegal fisheries, and other environmental crimes, including the illegal timber trade, is worth $70-213 billion each year (page 4). Of this, the illegal trade in plants and animals – excluding fisheries – represents roughly $7-23 billion dollars per year (page 7). Transnational organized crime is a threat not only to wildlife populations and the tourism revenue that is generated from it, but also to governmental agencies susceptible to corruption and graft at all levels. Aided at every level by subsistence poachers, commercial poachers, organized crime syndicates and regional poaching syndicates, insurgent militia groups, or corrupt officials, illegal wildlife traffickers act as the middle-man between poachers and illegal wholesalers, legitimate businesses, Eastern pharmaceutical companies, and consumers.

For more information on national and transnational efforts to stop environmental crimes view our section on Environmental Crime Operations ►

Kenya

Feisal Mohamed ALI - INTERPOL

Feisal Mohamed Ali. Credit: Interpol

In June of 2014 Feisal Mohamed Ali along with four suspected accomplices (Abdul Halim Sadiq, Abdulmajeed Ibrahim, Ghalib Sadiq Kara, and Pravez Noor Mohamed) were found in Mombasa, Kenya with 228 elephant tusks and 74-86 other pieces of ivory stashed at a warehouse. The ivory cumulatively weighed 2,152 kg (4,734 pounds). The Kenyan national was charged with crimes in Kenya, and two suspects were arrested during the ivory seizure, but Ali quickly fled to neighboring Tanzania. On 22 December, 2014 Ali was arrested in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and two days later extradited to Kenya on charges of dealing in wildlife trophies and suspicion of being involved in an international wildlife trafficking ring. He pleaded not guilty to all crimes and faced a number of bail hearings since his December arrest and January 2016 trial.

In July 2016 a Kenyan magistrate sentenced Ali to 20 years in prison, however Ali’s lawyers promised to appeal. Four other defendants, possibly his accomplices, were acquitted of related charges. In November of 2016, based on alleged irregularities in the way evidence was used to convict Ali but not his associates, his lawyers have sought to appeal the sentence. In August of 2018 this appeal resulted in the High Court in Mombasa overturning his 20-year sentence due to Ali having been convicted based on a law that was later repealed and on the basis that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Ali had been involved in ivory trafficking. The High Court also indicated that Ali had already served his time in excess of the one year considered appropriate by the old law. This new ruling has been appealed by Kenya’s Director of Public Prosecutions.

Ali was one of three high-profile fugitives arrested as part of INTERPOL’s global Operation Infra Terra which began in October of 2014 and continued into 2015. For more information on similar crack-downs, please see our section Environmental Crime Operations ►

Laos

Since at least 2003, Laotian national Vixay Keosavang has operated three companies each tied to wildlife trafficking and laundering of illegal wildlife with the help of bribes to government officials who provide falsified documents so the animal parts can be legally imported by other nations observing CITES conventions. Transparency International’s most recent report from 2015 ranked Laos as 139th of 168 evaluated countries, placing it among the most corrupt countries in the world.

Vixay - Alleged Xaysavang syndicate member with lion bones - by Julian Rademeyer

Alleged Xaysavang syndicate

member with full lion skeleton.

© Julian Rademeyer

In July of 2009 Kenyan authorities seized a shipment  addressed to ‘Xeosavang Trading’ containing 280 kilograms (616 pounds) of illicit ivory and rhinoceros horn on the way from Mozambique to Laos. In addition to openly importing illicit goods, ‘Xeosavang Trading’ (Xaysavang Trading) along with his trusted associate, Thai national Chumlong Lemongthai, are known to have hired people to travel to South Africa and pose as legitimate hunters while staging hunts, even taking photos with the kill, before flying the trophies to Southeast Asia. Fraudulent hunts like these have hurt the South African trophy hunting industry which has repeatedly come under scrutiny as the result of a few businesses selling fraudulent hunts in the United States and South Africa. It has also caused South African customs agents to racially profile Asians who could be acting as mules for trafficking syndicates and outright ban the issue of trophy hunting permits to Vietnamese.

Vixay’s ‘Vannaseng Trading’ and ‘Vinasakhone Trading’ companies were each authorized by the Laotian government to sell tens of millions of dollars of exotic wildlife bones, skins, and scales, including those that are completely banned for commercial trade at an international level. When confronted in 2013 regarding his businesses, Vixay denied being in the wildlife business. In November of 2013 the United States put out a $1 million award for information leading to the dismantling of Vixay’s well-established trafficking syndicate.

Several years ago counter-trafficking organization Freeland discovered Vixay’s complicity in wildlife trafficking deals with the Bach brothers, two Vietnamese nationals with Thai citizenship who operate in Thailand and have trafficking networks that stretch through Laos and into neighboring parts of Vietnam and nearby southern China. Bach van Hoa was arrested by the Royal Thai Police in December 2017 after Royal Thai Customs seized 12.5 kilograms (27.5 pounds) of rhino horn, leading them to traffickers associated with the Bach brothers. A month later Bach “Boonchai” Mai was by the Royal Thai Police, with help from wildlife conservation organization Freeland, during a coordinated bust of rhino horn traffickers within their network. According to EAL the network is responsible for illegally trafficking an estimated $2 million worth of rhino horn from South Africa over a four-month period. Read more in Wildlife Traffickers: Thailand ►

Namibia

Chinese rhino horn smugglers

Four Chinese nationals caught in Namibia

with 14 rhino horn. © Namibian.com.na

On 24 March, 2014 three Chinese nationals were apprehended at Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek, Nimibia with two suitcases containing 14 rhino horns and one leopard skin. These raw wildlife products were valued at N$2.35 million (roughly $220,000), but the street price would be substantially higher. Wang Hui, with successful businesses in his home town in China as well as Angola and Zambia, was apprehended at a casino in 2015 and has been fingered as the ringleader of the smuggling operation, though the group’s defense attorney has denied that the group has any form of hierarchy. Prosecutors have used video evidence to show that the three others, Pu Xuexin, Li Zhibing, and Li Xiaoliang, were subordinates and receipts indicate that the trio’s airfare was paid by Hui. A chief inspector has also accused Wang Hui of offering him a bribe, an allegation that is currently under investigation. According to Zhibing’s own initial testimony they were aware of what products they were being paid $3,000 to transportIn 2015 they were charged with smuggling wildlife products, possession or export of illegal proceeds, and illegal dealing or possession of wildlife products. They initially denied guilt of all charges. On 30 September, 2016 the four men were each sentenced to 14 years in prison.

In a separate incident in February of 2016 a Chinese national with a work permit and a Namibian citizen were charged with the illegal possession of 94 kilograms (207 pounds) of abalone, any of a group of sea snails and are currently threatened by illegal and unreported fishing. The Chinese national was additionally charged with illegally dealing elephant and rhinoceros parts and 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) of rhino horn pieces were found in his possession. Bank details show that he had received or deposited nearly N$2 million (roughly $140,00) in multiple bank accounts under his name, which the prosecution claimed is more than he could have reasonably made from his work. Six cars were also seized from the two men. The trial is ongoing.

Tanzania

Ivory Trader: A joint-operation between multiple law enforcement, wildlife protection agencies, and task forces around the world code-named Operation Cobra II (30 December 2013 – 26 January 2014) resulted in the seizure of more than 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of ivory, 36 rhino horns, over 10,000 turtles, and thousands of other animals and wildlife products. Among the successes during the course of the operation in Tanzania was the arrest of Yu Bo, a Chinese national allegedly in the country for business. He was caught at Dar es Salaam port in possession of 81 elephant tusks and 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of pangolin scales. Having plead guilty to his charges he was fined over 9 billion Tanzania Shillings ($6.5 million), but was unable to pay and was instead sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Yang Feng Lan 2 - Trafficker - EAL

Yang Feng Lan (Credit: Elephant Action League)

Ivory Queen: In October of 2015 a Chinese businesswoman living in East Africa since 1975 was arrested by Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit for her extensive involvement in an ivory trafficking ring. The syndicate had a history of trafficking ivory going back to at least 2006, but may have been actively trafficking goods since early 2000. Sixty-six years old at the time of her arrest, Yang Feng Lan (also “Yang Fenglan”) had been dubbed the “Queen of Ivory” due to her alleged role as ringleader of the prolific trafficking ring and overseas connections. At the time of her arrest, she was alleged to have helped smuggle at least 706 elephant tusks from East Africa to Asia. This figure was later revised to to 860 pieces or whole tusks weighing 15,900 kilograms (35,053 pounds) which were trafficked using her local and international connections to bypass commercial trade bans.

Facing a maximum jail sentence of 30 years, the sixty-nine year old was found guilty of smuggling only a portion of the 860 pieces of ivory she is suspected of having trafficked. During a February 2019 sentencing hearing Feng Lan received a 15 year jail term and each of her two Tanzanian associates received similar 15-year sentences. All three were also told to pay fines equivalent to twice the market value of the ivory or face an additional two years in jail. According to news site Mongabay, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that China would support the outcome of the court case and was committed to contributing to the protection of endangered wildlife.

4 Chinese nationals ivory traffickers - by EAL

Four Chinese nationals arrested in Tanzania.

(Credit: Earth League International)

Several of Feng Lan’s suppliers of ivory, as well as traffickers of Chinese nationality, were also arrested by the Tanzanian task force during the same operation. At the time of her arrest Tanzania’s NTSCIU is believed to have averaged one arrest per day since its creation.

Rhino Horn Smugglers: In November 2015 the Tanzanian Police and the National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit arrested four Chinese nationals (shown on right) on suspicion of smuggling. In December a Tanzanian court found them guilty on charges of unlawfully dealing in government trophies, unlawful possession of 11 rhino horns, and participating in organized crime. Chen Jianlin, Hu Liang, Song Lei, and Xiao Shaodan have been sentenced to twenty years in prison and a fine of 10 billion Tanzanian Shillings (roughly $4.6 million).