Record seizure of pangolin scales, ivory in Hong Kong

A record nine tons of endangered pangolin scales and 21 tons of ivory were seized after a joint operation by Hong Kong Customs and Chinese Mainland Customs.

Officials estimate that more than 13,000 pangolins and 500 elephants were brutally poached for such a large consignment. The shipment, on the way to Vietnam, was valued at nearly eight million U.S. dollars.

“This is the largest amount of pangolin scales ever seized in Hong Kong,” officials announced at a press conference on Friday.

Following a confidential tip, customs launched a massive operation screening containers at various ports to track the illegal consignment. The product dispatched from Nigeria was found hidden in a container at Hong Kong's Kwai Chung cargo port.

The container was labeled as frozen beef and deliberately kept at a low temperature to disguise the smell of pangolin scales.

Last July, Hong Kong customs seized more than seven tons of pangolin scales from Africa en route to the Chinese mainland. These frequent massive seizures expose a thriving trade of wildlife products, most of which has been banned by China. Last year, the country banned domestic trade in both wildlife products.

The ant-eating pangolins are the most illegally traded mammal in the world. Concerned over such large scale poaching, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared all eight pangolin species as threatened with extinction.

Massive use of the product for traditional medicines, mostly in South East Asian countries, is leading to their extinction, IUCN said.

Wildlife experts believe the smuggling routes for wildlife trade are undergoing significant transformation after China's wildlife trade ban. Vietnam is emerging as a lucrative destination.

Recently, TRAFFIC – a wildlife trade monitoring agency – found more than 10,000 ivory items being sold in the country' s 852 physical stores and 17 online platforms.

Alex Hofford, campaign manager at conservation group WildAid in Hong Kong, pointed out that there are two possible explanations for smugglers trying to sneak the consignment into Vietnam. The first is that this illegal consignment was never intended to go there.

Vietnam's Haiphong port, listed on shipping documents, would be a ploy to mislead the Hong Kong Customs. The couple arrested for the illegal consignment may have been planning to repackage these illegal wildlife products and send them to the Chinese mainland via speedboat.

“The second theory is that the illegal consignment could genuinely have been on its way to Vietnam, a country which shares a long and porous border with China,” Hofford told CGTN.

The couple arrested for importing the banned wildlife items owns a trading company in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district. “Investigation is ongoing, and all arrested persons have been released on bail pending further investigation,” Hong Kong Customs said in a statement.

(Cover Image: Hong Kong Customs and Chinese Mainland Customs seized a large consignment of pangolin scales and elephant tusks from Nigeria en route to Vietnam. /Photo courtesy of Hong Kong Customs.)

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Chinese businessman facing wildlife trafficking charges in Namibia

A CHINESE businessman charged with illegally dealing in elephant tusks and possessing other wildlife products is due to go on trial with two Namibian co-accused in the Windhoek Regional Court in November.

The trial of Hou Xuecheng and his co-accused was scheduled to start before magistrate Ileni Velikoshi last week, but ended up being postponed to 5 November because no Mandarin interpreter was available to assist with the translation of court proceedings for Hou.

Hou (41), fellow Chinese citizen Sha Zhiwei, Indian national Rajaiyah Kumar, and Namibian Hamutenja Stanislaus Hamutenya were arrested in June 2014 after they had allegedly been caught dealing in ivory in Windhoek. Another Namibian, George Mashala, was arrested on the same charge at the end of July 2014.

Only Hou and the two Namibians were present for their court appearance last week, though. Having been released on bail of N$20 000 each in September 2014, Kumar and Sha have been fugitives from justice in Namibia since failing to turn up for a scheduled court appearance in January 2015.

Court records reflect that Hou paid their bail on 9 September 2014. Hou has been free on bail of N$30 000 since 29 July 2014.

The state has charged all five of the accused with a count of dealing in controlled wildlife products, based on an allegation that they dealt in four elephant tusks with a combined weight of 54 kilogrammes in Windhoek on 11 June 2014.

Hou, Kumar and Sha are also charged with two counts of possessing controlled wildlife products without a permit. In respect of those charges, the prosecution is alleging that the three men were in possession of a cheetah skin and a leopard skin in Windhoek on 12 June 2014 without having the required permits to possess the skins, and that they also had seven zebra skins, a pangolin skin, and a stuffed leopard head in their possession at China Town in Windhoek on 11 October 2014 without having permits to possess those wildlife products.

Hou has also faced other legal difficulties in Namibia more recently.

After Anti-Corruption Commission investigators seized two lorries and their cargo of timber – alleged to have been illegally logged in the Zambezi region – at Walvis Bay at the start of January, the close corporation New Force Logistics, through which Hou is doing business and which is the registered owner of the lorries, sued the ACC to have the vehicles and their cargo returned to it.

In a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court almost two weeks ago, the ACC was ordered to return the lorries and four shipping containers with timber to New Force Logistics, since the ACC investigators did not have a warrant authorising the search and seizure they carried out when they confiscated the vehicles and their cargo.

The four shipping containers with timber that was being transported to the Walvis Bay harbour have in the meantime again been seized by the ACC, after a warrant authorising that action had been obtained.

Hou, Hamutenya and Mashala remain free on bail while waiting for the start of their trial.

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