KOTA KINABALU: The Customs Department has seized various species of wildlife valued at RM112mil under Ops Bersepadu Khazanah (OBK) between 2019 and 2021.
Customs director-general Datuk Zazuli Johan said an assortment of live animals were also rescued during the period.
He said among the wildlife rescued were 4,500 Murai songbirds from a coastal village in Johor that were about to be sent illegally to the Indonesian black market.
“Another was the saving of more than 6,000 tortoises of various species that were brought in by a passenger through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport,” he said after attending the OBK meeting here on Thursday (Aug 4).
Zazuli said the tortoises were mostly intended to be sold at the black market in China.
“On July 12, we seized elephant tusks, rhino horns and pangolin scales that were worth some RM80mil after physical checks on large containers.
“We detected these items using scanners supplied by the Finance Ministry,” he said, referring to the six new scanners placed at Port Klang which were equipped with artificial intelligence technology.
Zazuli said the department had also handed over 65 tonnes of red sanders wood and six tonnes of pangolin scales they seized from their operations to the relevant authorities to be disposed of.
Meanwhile, Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim said 212 investigation papers had been opened under the OBK since it was launched on Sept 3, 2019.
The investigations involved offences related to wildlife, forestry, immigration and illegal possession of firearms.
“This involved 399 offenders. A total of 1,650 traps were also destroyed.
“As of this year, there had been 31 investigation papers involving 53 offenders,” he said, adding that 50 of the offenders were Malaysians while the rest were Indonesians.
Various items worth more than RM3.9mil have been seized.
Abdul Kadir said the department was committed to ensuring the country’s natural heritage, especially wildlife, were protected through enforcement of the Wildlife Conservation Act (Amendment) 2021 (Act 761).
The main criteria that was improved, he said, was to increase the maximum penalty from RM500,000 to RM1mil and jail sentence from 10 to 15 years as a deterrent for crimes against wildlife.
“Besides that, there is also a new provision that enables action to be taken against individuals for advertising the sale of wildlife online,” he said.
