Our dubious honour in wildlife crimes

WILDLIFE smuggling is now the fourth largest transnational organised crime, after drugs, weapons and human trafficking, and Malaysia is gaining infamy for being a key hub in the network.

The sordid trade in live exotic animals and parts of animals is run by at least 12 well-organised criminal cartels operating from countries in Africa and Asia. These criminals are believed to be raking in between US$7bil (RM32.5bil) and US$23bil (RM106.9bil) yearly.

Malaysia is listed among the 10 worst countries for wildlife trafficking, along with the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Thailand, China, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. Based on investigations by international NGO Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Port Klang is among smugglers’ preferred places for entry, exit or transit shipment.

In the latest case, India seized 665 exotic animals – turtles, tortoises, pythons, iguanas and geckos – smuggled via Port Klang last week.

They were concealed under legally-declared packages containing ornamental fish. A total of 548 animals were alive while 117 died during the journey.

Two Indian men from Mumbai were arrested and charged, and the consignment was traced to a Malaysian identified as David Lu.

The seized animals are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List and protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), signed by 175 countries, including India and Malaysia.

To be fair, Malaysian authorities have on many occasions successfully blocked the smuggling of trafficked wildlife products.

On July 10, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department chalked its biggest success so far with the seizure of six tonnes of elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns, pangolin scales and tiger fangs worth RM80mil hidden behind piles of sawn timber in a container on a ship.

Containing smuggled wildlife parts from an African country, the shipment transited through Abu Dhabi and was headed for Pasir Gudang, Johor, when it was intercepted by Customs officers.

It was reported then that the importer of the consignment and the shipping agent were under investigation. But no one has been charged in connection with this case yet.

In a significant development, Malaysian Teo Boon Ching, 57, was extradited to the United States last week, for alleged involvement in the trafficking of endangered wildlife and money laundering.

According to the US Department of Justice, Teo was indicted for taking part in a conspiracy to traffic more than 70kg of rhinoceros horns valued at more than US$725,000 (RM3.37mil)

He was arrested in Bangkok on June 29 by the Thai police’s Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, together with the US Fish and Wildlife Service for trafficking ivory, rhino horns and pangolin scales from Africa to South-East Asia over two decades.

It was his second arrest for wildlife trafficking in Thailand. He was nabbed in March 2015 for involvement in the smuggling of 135kg of elephant tusks.

On Sunday, Royal Malaysia Police secretary Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin said that none of the offences allegedly committed by Teo involved cases in Malaysia, adding that police would continue monitoring developments on the case.

However, SEEJ-AFRICA (Saving Elephants through Education and Justice), a risk mitigation NGO which counters wildlife crime and corruption, said Teo’s arrest almost certainly indicated a link to a West African cartel, smugglers of ivory and rhino horn operating from Africa since 2012.

A key figure of the cartel is Liberian Moazu Kromah, 49, who has made millions by illegally poaching and trafficking endangered animals. He was arrested in 2017 and, after a long trial, was sentenced to more than five years in prison by the Southern District Court of New York on Aug 19, 2022.

The EIA describes Teo as a “key player in the illegal wildlife trade between Africa and Asia”.

In its 2018 report titled Exposing the Hydra, the EIA refers to Teo as a vital member of a Vietnamese wildlife trafficking syndicate, taking the role of a “specialist transporter” for Vietnamese and Chinese syndicates.

Based on the EIA’s investigations, Teo provided concealment and packing services for numerous criminal networks involved in smuggling ivory, rhino horns and pangolin scales into Asia via Malaysian ports.

As of 2017, Teo is believed to have provided clearance services for about 80 containers, with only one seizure.

He is also believed to be involved in the logistics for two shipments of pangolin scales and 7.2 tonnes of ivory in Hong Kong in July 2017.

Teo is believed to have strong connections at Johor Port, to the point of having his customers enter the clearance warehouse to verify shipments arriving in Malaysia. The consignment is then moved to his own warehouse for repacking for air cargo packages for the next step in transportation.

He reportedly has strong connections with people involved in the acquisition and distribution of illicit wildlife commodities in Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Laos.

In its assessment of wildlife crime in Malaysia five years ago, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime noted that between 2003 and 2014, nearly 20% of the world’s total ivory seizures had a Malaysian connection, amounting to more than 63 tonnes.

This was either seized in Malaysia or elsewhere but was heading to this country or had transited through it. Not all of these shipments transited through Malaysia. Some appeared to enter only to be forwarded to another destination in a consignment listing Malaysia as its point of origin.

“This implies the presence of organised crime groups that feel confident enough to smuggle wildlife products not only into Malaysia but out of it as well. It also implies the complicity of some officials in the supply chain,” the report noted.

The EIA report also highlighted the absence of arrests of high-level individuals in connection with these seizures. While a small number of offenders – usually couriers – have been arrested and convicted, syndicate leaders are rarely brought to justice.

Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this quote by British novelist and philosopher Gilbert K. Chesterton: ‘We talk of wild animals, but the wildest animal is man’. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.