RM4mil animal parts seized

PETALING JAYA: Nearly RM4mil worth of trafficked ivory and pangolin scales were found in an air cargo warehouse at the KLIA Free Trade Zone by the Customs Depart­ment on July 30.

Customs Department assistant director-general (enforcement) Datuk Mohd Pudzi Man said they found the two boxes of elephant tusks at 1.30pm on that day.

“The box was labelled as ‘foodstuff’ and we found out that the import company doesn’t exist. Investigations showed the 23 tusks weighed about 75.74kg, with an estimated value of RM275,000,” he told reporters at the department’s KLIA office yesterday.

He said the package came into the country from Lagos through Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Mohd Pudzi said while Malaysia was its last stop, it did not necessarily mean that the items were for the Malaysian market.

The second find of pangolin scales amounting to about RM3.8mil came at about 8.30pm.

“Six sacks of pangolin scales were found, weighing about 300kg.

“The air way bill listed the items as ‘fishmaw’,” said Mohd Pudzi.

That cargo, he said, originated from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the department believed that both the items were brought in by an international syndicate.

While there was no identifiable link between the two cases so far, or evidence to suggest an inside job, investigations are still ongoing.

“We don’t have proof but I believe that they (the syndicates) exploited our systems and procedures,” said Mohd Pudzi.