The Pangolin Reports

Criminal syndicates in Africa and Asia are working

together — and competing — to meet the seemingly
insatiable demand for pangolins in China and other
markets. Here’s how this underground trade risks wiping
out the species.

A pangolin rescued from tra!ckers in Vietnam recuperates at a rehabilitation centre run by NGO Save Vietnam’s Wildlife. Severe injuries to its front left leg, in"icted by a poacher’s trap, left vets with no choice
but to amputate it. Footage by Centre for Media and Development Initiatives, Vietnam (MDI).

PANGOLINS
The multimillion-dollar mammal

T he world’s most tra!cked mammal is a solitary anteater resembling an

artichoke: the pangolin. Prized for its scales, particularly for traditional
medicine in China, this quiet animal is at the centre of a sophisticated, multi-
million-dollar supply chain across Africa and Asia, run by networks of criminal
syndicates.

The Global Environmental Reporting Collective, formed in early 2019, chose the
pangolin trade as its #rst focus for in-depth investigation. More than 30
journalists from 14 newsrooms reported in Africa and Asia, conducting dozens of
exclusive interviews and even going undercover. The results are being published
here as The Pangolin Reports.

“Roughly 50 tons of illegal African pangolin scales have been seized globally in the
last four months,” estimated Peter Knights, the CEO of WildAid, an advocacy
group. “In shipments that contain both pangolins and ivory, pangolin scales have
now surpassed the volume of ivory.”

High demand has made the pangolin the most illegally traded mammal in the
world, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). All
eight subspecies of the shy animal are threatened with extinction, scientists say.
And when pangolins disappear, so does the ecological balance in their natural
habitats.

“In the 21st century we really should not be eating species to extinction,”
Jonathan Baillie, a leading expert, said in 2014. “There is simply no excuse for
allowing this illegal trade to continue.” In the preceding decade, more than a
million pangolins are believed to have been hunted, the IUCN estimated.

Wildlife experts estimate that nine out of 10 illegally tra!cked pangolins are not detected by authorities. Credit:
Tsai Yao-Cheng / The Reporter

A global ban on the trade that came into e$ect in January 2017 did not turn
things around. Record numbers of pangolins have been seized so far this year,
according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an advocacy
organisation.

In February, a 30-ton seizure in Sabah, Malaysia, was the largest recorded so far.
In April, the Singapore authorities intercepted 12.9 tons of scales, a record
seizure equivalent to 36,000 pangolins. A few days later, Singapore con#scated
an additional 12.7 tons. In July, another bust led to the discovery of a 11.9-ton
shipment, making 2019 a record year.

Global seizures have surpassed the 2018 #gures Only a tenth of

by a wide margin, according to the EIA. Its trafficked wildlife is
researchers estimate that an equivalent of
actually intercepted,
110,182 pangolins has been con#scated by law
according to one
enforcement this year so far – a 54.5% increase
compared with last year.
Interpol estimate.

One reason is the increased awareness by law enforcement, said Darren

Pietersen, the director of research and conservation at Tikki Hywood Foundation.
“Various research articles suggest that this increase is at least in part a genuine
increase in the number of pangolins being poached,” he said.

Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of smuggling is likely to continue

undetected, our reporting suggests. Only a tenth of tra!cked wildlife is actually
intercepted, according to one Interpol estimate.

RELATED: Six Facts We Didn't Know About The Pangolin

Our journalists traced the illegal trade routes from roadside markets in
Cameroon and elsewhere to intermediaries and tra!ckers in Nepal back to
China. The following chapters will provide insights into a shadow economy that
has thrived out of sight. Without intervention, these actions will drive the animal
to extinction.

Despite the scale of the trade, little is actually known about it, even among
prosecutors and law enforcement o!cials in its key market: China.

This map depicts the international routes used to tra!c pangolins, spanning mostly within Africa and Asia. The
majority of demand for pangolins is believed to be from China, where pangolins are consumed and its scales
used in traditional Chinese medicine. Data: Nepali Times

CHINA
Tons of demand for "commercially extinct" species

O utside the gates of a warehouse in southern China, a middle-aged man

surnamed Zhang at #rst showed no interest in talking to us or answering
questions about his business dealings in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

His mood changed when we mentioned pangolins. “Do you have supply?” he
said. “Come to our o!ce, let’s talk about it more.”

Zhang works in the supply department of a TCM producer in Shantou,

Guangdong Province. “So far this year, we’ve used several tons of pangolin
scales,” Zhang said. “We need at least a few hundred kilograms a month.”

“We ordered a ton of scales last month, but it hasn’t arrived yet,” he said, adding
that they would also sell unprocessed scales to other pharmaceutical companies.

Our reporters reviewed more than 400 court decisions in criminal cases in China
related to the illegal trade in pangolins from 2005 to 2019. In only a few of the
court cases we studied were prosecutors able or willing to retrace the smuggling
routes to their origins, like Indonesia and Nigeria.

The numbers of pangolin seizures are rising, not only in China, the primary
market, but also in transit hubs such as Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong,
according to EIA #gures. Even there, the origin of the goods remains unknown for
the vast majority of cases.

110,182
pangolins seized
01 Jan 2019 - 26 Aug 2019

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

The map shows seizure amounts of illegally tra!cked pangolins around the world from 2000 to March 2019.
Click on the speci#c year or adjust the grey bar to view the number of seizures that occurred during that period.
Bigger red icons represent larger seizure amounts. Data: EIA

The data is compiled from publicly available records and represents only a fraction of actual trade for that
period. Where scales have been seized, the number of pangolins is derived from a mean weight of 5kg of scales
per adult pangolin.

Breeding and keeping pangolins has proved di!cult. China has an intransparent
system that allows for the continued consumption of pangolin stockpiles for
TCM. Due to the high demand and limited regulatory oversight, many suppliers
rely on cheaper, illegal imports.

Where do these millions of pangolins

come from if there are almost none left
in China?

This was why we visited Zhang, undercover, at his factory in southern China. We
wanted to know where his scales came from.

Zhang insisted that his company was willing to pay a surcharge to source only
legal scales, even though they could cost up to twice as much. “Price is not a
problem,” he said.

His company, among others, makes TCM concoctions out of raw pangolin scales
in industrial quantities. We later reached out to the company, asking them about
the origin of their scales. They declined to comment.

But his statements left us curious. If a medium-sized company like his needs tons
of scales, where would larger pharmaceutical companies source their pangolin
scales? Where do these millions of pangolins come from if there are almost none
left in China?

China’s pangolin population has dropped over 90% from the 1960s to 2004 due
to massive poaching for its meat as a delicacy and its scales for medicinal use.
The Chinese pangolin has been “commercially extinct” since 1995, researchers
say.

The pro#t margins we found are astounding. Scales bought for as little as $5 per
kilogram in Nigeria can be resold for up to $1,000 in China, according to traders
we interviewed in China. If mixed with legally acquired scales, their price can be
as high as $1,800 per kilogram.

Prices of pangolin scales and meat in di$erent countries, sourced from wildlife conservation organisations,
government o!cials, and interviews with poachers and traders, some of which were made undercover.

Who would want pangolin scales? According to some TCM practitioners, pangolin
scales can cure a host of ailments, including in"ammation and poor lactation in
new mothers, and even impotence and cancer.

Dr Lao Lixing, the former director of the School of Chinese Medicine at The
University of Hong Kong, said that there is no scienti#c research that supports
the claim that pangolin scales have healing properties.

He said that TCM practitioners in Hong Kong and mainland China have largely
stopped prescribing medications with pangolin scales, but pharmaceutical
companies have continued to produce drugs with the scales. “It’s a matter of
market and pro#ts," he said. "To further the ban on pangolin use in Chinese
medicine, we need more public education and concerted e$orts by the TCM
sector.”

“TCM professionals need to speak up to defend the good name of the Chinese
medicine,” said Dr Lao, who speaks regularly at international conferences to
advocate replacing animal ingredients in TCM with plant-based substitutes.

(Left) Pangolin scales for sale at a pharmacy in Shantou, Guangdong Province. These scales were kept in an
unmarked plastic bag hidden from the counter, sold for 6 renminbi per gram – that’s less than $1. The worker
told our undercover journalist that pangolin scales are good for reducing swelling and promoting lactation.
(Right) In another pharmacy in Shantou, pangolin scales are sold for more than 7,000 renminbi, or $990, per
kilogram. This pack contains 5 grams, and is marked with a sticker from China’s Wildlife Special Mark Centre,
signifying that it is a legally sold product.

In another pharmacy in Shantou, pangolin scales are sold for more than 7,000
renminbi, or $990, per kilogram. This pack contains 5 grams, and is marked with
a sticker from China’s Wildlife Special Mark Centre, signifying that it is a legally
sold product.

Although its medicinal properties are unproven, mostly Chinese patients appear
to be consuming literally tons of these products. The problem is that we don’t
know how much.

“There continues to be a complete lack of transparency on the quantities of

pangolin scale stockpiles held by the government or private entities in China,”
Chris Hamley, a senior campaigner on pangolins at EIA, wrote in an e-mail. “There
is also no information on the estimated quantity of pangolin scales consumed by
the Chinese population over a speci#c time period.”

“The recent string of multi-tonne ‘mega’ shipments of pangolin scales detected by

law enforcement agencies in Asia demonstrates that the supply of pangolin
scales from historical stockpiles does not meet demand.”

CAMEROON
Grassroots poachers find new clients

I n 2017, Cameroon banned the trade in pangolins. But despite e$orts by law
enforcement and activists in the Central African nation, we discovered that
business is still thriving in plain sight in some rural regions. Pangolin meat can be
found in many smaller restaurants along highways and in markets.

A six-hour drive south of the capital Yaounde, in the small town of Djoum, we
met a woman named Mango. She runs a bushmeat restaurant, selling wildlife
meat including pangolins.

But she is better known for her side business as a pangolin scales trader. She
collects pangolin scales in large quantities from other poachers to supply clients
in big cities like Yaounde and Douala, who deal with Chinese clients there.

“I know it’s illegal,” she said, “but the business is good.”

BERTOUA
YAOUNDE NSIMALEN
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
ABONG MBANG

DOUALA
DOUALA INTERNATIONAL MINDOUROU
AIRPORT YAOUNDE
LOMIE

DJOUM

In rural areas of
Cameroon, pangolins are
still openly traded.

Pangolin scales are sold on

to traders in the larger
cities, Yaounde and
Douala.

Pangolins are then mostly

smuggled out of the
country via cargo or
passenger "ights.

At the market, we heard that prices used to be around $5 to $10 per kilogram
three years ago. The price has since risen to $15.

Typically, there is a division of labour in poacher families such as hers, according

to interviews with her and several of her competitors. Husbands hunt the
pangolins and wives sell them on.

Local middlemen roam the region, meeting Typically, there is a

women like Mango at their homes and buying division of labour in
their catch. They deliver the aggregate to
poacher families:
typically Asian businesspeople in bigger cities,
Husbands hunt the
who smuggle the produce to Asia, local poachers
and wildlife advocates said.
pangolins and wives sell
them on.
Middlemen hide the scales in trucks that travel
along changing smuggling routes to prevent
detection by the authorities.

“People used to use small vehicles to smuggle pangolin scales from one region to
another, but now more are putting scales inside heavy trucks to avoid attraction,”
Mango said.

Live pangolins sold at a bushmeat market in Cameroon. Credit: Paul Anu / Green Echoes

With Cameroon’s southern border to Nigeria mostly shut, smugglers now tend to
use air cargo shipments. Douala, a city with a sizeable Chinese community, is a
favoured spot for smuggling scales out of Cameroon, advocates and local law
enforcement said.

After reports of arrests and imprisonments, fewer people are talking openly
about the trade.

Increasing demand is taking its toll. In rural Mindourou, we met Danielle, a chef
who has been cooking pangolins and feeding travellers along long-distance
routes for more than 10 years. She said that pangolins are harder to get, because
of the over-poaching.

In the town of Bertoua, a six-hour drive east of Yaounde, we met traders who
remain de#ant that they will continue with their trade despite the risks of
imprisonment. “The killing of pangolins will never stop,” said a woman named
Mondi, a trader. “The community depends on the forest for their livelihood.”

NIGERIA
Traders outdone by Chinese competitors

T he Chinatown in Lagos, Nigeria, has bright red walls painted to resemble the
Great Wall, and "uttering Nigerian and Chinese "ags. Above the entrance
are Chinese characters 中国商城, or “China Business City.”

Chinese-run shops sell everything from clothes to books to machinery. And some
suspect, even pangolins.

“I have strong reasons to suspect that some of the scales may be stored there
before they are shipped overseas,” said Olajumoke Morenikeji, an environmental
biologist and professor at the University of Ibadan.

Morenikeji, former director of the University of Ibadan Zoological Garden, has

studied for years how Chinese traders have taken over the market for pangolins
because they pay higher prices than their local competitors.
 The entrance to China Business City, the Chinatown in Lagos, where predominantly Chinese-run businesses are
frequented by both locals and Chinese nationals. Credit: Samuel Ogundipe / Premium Times

She said that local hunters are o$ered between 5,000 and 10,000 Nigerian naira
for a pangolin, or about $14-$28. “That is a lot of money in Nigeria,” she said,
adding that local traders are mostly unaware that middlemen pro#t many times
more by exporting it to China.

“The hunters go into the bushes or forests to hunt, usually overnight, and sell to
middlemen who know how to get them to the urban markets,” she said. “It is
from the urban markets that the Chinese hijack the product by out-negotiating
the locals.”

There have been cases in which Chinese traders also go into remote villages in
search of the product themselves, she said, referring to an unexpected
encounter with a middleman in the nearby town of Ikire.

From Nigeria, the pangolin scales are being smuggled out to China, often via
shipping containers that are falsely labelled, leading to large seizures in
Singapore and Vietnam earlier this year.

In another recent case, about 120 kilograms of scales were found hidden inside
damaged machinery en route to Antwerp, Belgium, according to a local o!cial
who was not authorised to speak on the record.

We asked the Nigeria Customs Service about their seizures of pangolin scales. In
2018, they con#scated 6.2 tons of elephant tusks and pangolin scales in 10 busts.
Between January and June this year, they seized 667 kilograms of tusks and
pangolin scales. They did not provide separate #gures.

“Roughly 50 tonnes of illegal African pangolin scales have been seized globally in
the last four months,” estimated Peter Knights, the CEO of WildAid, an advocacy
group. “In shipments that contain both pangolins and ivory, pangolin scales have
now surpassed the volume of ivory.”

This woman we met at market in Lagos is one of several traders openly selling pangolin scales there. Credit:
Samuel Ogundipe / Premium Times

Interviews conducted at local bushmeat markets con#rm that growing Chinese

demand is displacing local traders. “The Chinco people have taken over the
market and are paying high prices to take o$ all scales from the local market,”
said one trader at Ketu Market in Lagos, referring to her Chinese competitors.

When we met her, she had about 1.5 kilograms “I have been in this
of scales left in her store, with a selling price of business for many
10,000 Nigerian naira. All the traders we talked
years, but I have never
to claimed they did not know it was illegal to
heard that it is illegal to
trade pangolins in Nigeria. “Our forefathers have
used pangolins and other wild animals to make
sell animals that were
medicine and heal people, and we’re not going
caught in the bush.”
to stop now,” she said.

“I have been in this business for many years,” said the woman at Ketu Market.
“My daughter is now 23, and she was born into it, but I have never heard that it is
illegal to sell animals that were caught in the bush.”

At Ijora Market, near the Lagos lagoon, many traders said they have run out of
stock in recent months due to Chinese demand. They lamented that the scales
no longer reach their markets, but went directly to Chinese buyers.

MALAYSIA
Rising demand reaches into rainforests,
indigenous hunters say

I n a simple bamboo hut in a small clearing among towering rainforest trees,

we share a meal of forest squirrel and tapioca with our hosts. They are from
the indigenous Temiar community, whose traditional land sits on the northern
edges of Peninsular Malaysia’s central forest spine. They are in high spirits, while
we are aching with fatigue, because we have just spent half a day hunting and
foraging with them.

When they showed us the squirrel that would later become our dinner, dead
from a poisoned blowpipe dart, we were told not to laugh or joke. No reason was
given, but it struck us as a sign of respect for the utility of the forest and its
creatures.

Our conversations with indigenous communities con#rm that the demand for
pangolins has penetrated even into villages deep in the Malaysian jungle. “In the
past, if we felt like eating pangolins, then we will go hunt for it,” said one
indigenous hunter. “It’s not like we hunt and eat it all the time.”

Indigenous communities who live in the forests of Malaysia usually only hunt pangolins when there is a demand
from buyers from elsewhere. Prices vary according to buyer and season. They can go up to 600 ringgit (US$143)
per kilogram. Credit: Elroi Yee / R.AGE

Among the Temiars, pangolins are said to ward o$ elephants, an ability they
acquired from an incident in which a pangolin wrapped itself around an
elephant’s trunk and refused to let go, killing the elephant. Since then, the
Temiars say, elephants avoid pangolins. Other indigenous groups are known to
link the pangolin to the human foetus, as they believe it is a reincarnation of the
human placenta.

The pangolin is an animal so rich in mythology that some villagers we spoke to

tell of oral traditions that prohibit its hunting and eating. The hunters we spoke
to say they have recently stopped hunting them, despite the loss in possible
revenue, citing objections from village elders.

“When there are outsiders who want to buy it from us, that’s when we hunt it and
we sell it. If there are no buyers, we won’t hunt it.”

Although these communities mostly live o$ the forest and have only tenuous
links to the mainstream cash economy, the pangolin trade is still in"uenced by
market forces. Di$erent buyers o$er the hunters di$erent prices, and it changes
by season. Hunters simply try to sell to the highest bidder.

“In the past, prices were around 300 ringgit per kilogram,” said the hunter.
“Sometimes, up to 350 ringgit. Even up to 600 ringgit.” That highest price is about
$143.

“But now, it fetches around 100 ringgit per kilogram, maybe 150 or 50 ringgit per
kilogram. If we hear the price is 50 ringgit per kilogram, we won’t bother. But if
we hear the price is 300 ringgit per kilogram, that’s when we go hunting.”

Two hunters from the indigenous Temiar community in Peninsular Malaysia pose with a pangolin they had just
caught the day before. While researchers often #nd pangolins elusive and di!cult to study, indigenous hunters'
intimate knowledge of the forest and its animals allow them to track pangolins simply by recognising and
following its tracks. The pangolin was later released. Credit: Puah Sze Ning / R.AGE

“This demand for pangolins from China #rst sucked up all the pangolins in China,
so that it is now commercially extinct there,” said Dr Chong Ju Lian, a lecturer at
Universiti Terengganu Malaysia, who has been involved in pangolin research
since 2008.

“Then around 2006 or 2007, we noticed a spike in pangolin seizures in Malaysia.

There were a lot of news reports of pangolin smugglers being intercepted by
authorities, and bear in mind that the majority of smuggling goes undetected.”

She has found that the demand for pangolins has shifted to African countries,
something she and other researchers foresaw when they successfully lobbied for
all eight pangolin species to be reclassi#ed under Appendix I in the International
Union of Conservation and Nature’s (IUCN) trade list, a move that bars all
commercial trade of pangolins.

“That’s why we insisted on including the four African species in the

reclassi#cation, even though they were not considered critically endangered back
then.”

“When there are outsiders who want

to buy it from us, that’s when we hunt it
and we sell it. If there are no buyers, we
won’t hunt it.”

Based on her conversations with indigenous communities, Dr Chong said she

thought that poaching has brought Malaysia’s pangolin population to the brink of
extinction.

“Some indigenous hunters say they have not seen a pangolin in three years,” she
said. “The middleman is still willing to buy, but pangolin hunting is just not as
attractive now as it used to be, simply because it is so di!cult to #nd one.”

MALAYSIA-THAI BORDER
Police officers turn to smuggling

N ext to a roadside food stall, sparse nighttime tra!c whizzes by. Everything
is tinged orange by streetlight. We are in Malaysia, a 40-minute drive south
of the Thai border.

The pangolin smuggler we are meeting undercover arrives with his daughter, a
child no older than six. It is a scene that is di!cult to reconcile – she, dressed like
a princess, complete with a tiara. He, a smuggler of pangolins and who knows
what else.

"OK, let me explain," he said. "The goods come from Indonesia, and the towkays,
they bid for the goods." He uses the colloquial term for buyer or “boss.”

"Goods from Indonesia, it must be at least a ton. So, one ton of goods and the
bidding starts. Price starts at 300 ringgit per kilogram. Okay, how much can you
pay?" He motions towards one of us. "OK, this one wants to pay 310 ringgit." He
motions to another one of us. "Now this one wants to pay 320 ringgit. And
another one wants to pay 350 ringgit."

"So the one who o$ered 350 ringgit will get the goods." (The price he cites equals
$84.)

Over four months, we spoke to several people involved in wildlife smuggling like
this man, ranging from smugglers to middlemen to poachers. Some interviews
were made undercover, in which we claimed to be traders. The interviews show
that the underground pangolin trade has matured into an illegal, but open
market. Competition is #erce, and market forces decide on prices. Innovation
di$erentiates those at the top.

A pangolin rescued from an online wildlife trader during our undercover investigation. The pangolin was later
released into the jungle by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia.

Overwhelming demand for pangolins is driving an illicit trade that often slips past
local law enforcement. Sometimes the reason is corruption, as evidenced by this
man before us, who is not only a smuggler, but also a policeman. He asked not to
be identi#ed.

We had met him earlier at a magistrate courthouse, where he was standing trial
for possession of 81 live pangolins.

According to the policeman-smuggler, the pangolin market is so competitive that

syndicates are double-crossing each other to gain an advantage.

"So the one who o$ered 350 ringgit gets the goods, but the others know that the
goods are arriving,” he said. “They might not know when exactly, but they know it
is coming this week, or in two, three days' time. So they are ready."

By "ready", he means they are ready to sabotage the trader who won the bid.
According to him, that is how he got caught. Someone from a rival syndicate
leaked information to wildlife enforcement o!cers.

"When the goods are available, they already have their target," he said. "In fact, I
have sabotaged someone from their team before."

Sources close to ongoing investigations say that According to the

the market is price-driven, and the syndicate policeman-smuggler,
that pays the highest can dominate the market.
the pangolin market is
Investigations show that live pangolins from so competitive that
Indonesia typically enter by boat, landing along syndicates are double-
the coast of the Malacca Straits, before being crossing each other to
transported northward by car across the Thai gain an advantage.
border.

PADANG BESAR
BUKIT KAYU HITAM

RANTAU PANJANG

MALACCA STRAITS CENTRAL FOREST SPINE

The Malacca Straits is a key

smuggling route for
pangolins. Smugglers and
sources within
enforcement agencies say
that batches of live
pangolins are typically
shipped on small to
medium-sized boats,
landing at hidden locations
along the Malaysian
coastline.

Pangolins are also sourced

from Malaysian jungles or
plantation areas.

Pangolins are brought

together at collection
points, before being
transported to Thailand.
From Thailand, pangolins
are smuggled on to Laos,
then to Vietnam and China.

There, growing demand has changed the nature of the trade. Customs o!cials
have become more aware of the trade, forcing smugglers to become more
sophisticated. Smugglers crossing the border used to hire lorries, but are now
increasingly using less detectable passenger vehicles, said Somkiat
Soontornpitakkool, director of the Wild Fauna and Flora Protection Division of the
Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in Thailand.

This is corroborated by the enforcement authorities in Malaysia, who have shown

us photos of passenger cars being out#tted with special air conditioning vents
channelling cool air into the boot of the car. This keeps pangolins alive longer
during the smuggling run.

The smugglers want to keep the pangolins alive because they can fetch higher
prices for the meat. Often, we’re told, customers prefer to see the animal alive at
restaurants. One restaurant chef we spoke to, who used to serve pangolins to
tourists from China, said the usual practice was to slit the pangolin's throat in
front of the customer, then use its blood in the cooking.

Syndicates smuggle pangolins in passenger cars out#tted with special air conditioning vents in the boot to keep
the animals alive longer. © Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Malaysia

“The smuggling routes mainly lead to the provinces adjacent to the Mekong River
in northeast Thailand – Nakorn Phanom, Mukdahan, and Nongkhai – before
going to Laos, and then on to Vietnam and China,” said Somkiat.

Near the border, professional smugglers are hired to send the goods across the
border. Investigations show that members of the police and other enforcement
authorities are involved. Since 2012, three Malaysian policemen have been
arrested for smuggling pangolins, including one o!cer who was arrested twice.
All three worked, or are still working, at the same police station, the Kedah state
police headquarters.

SADAO CUSTOMS
CHECKPOINT
BUKIT KAYU HITAM
CHECKPOINT

ALOR SETAR

KEDAH POLICE
HEADQUARTERS

BUKIT KAYU
HITAM
CHECKPOINT
SEPT 2012 : Police
o!cer Mohammad
Norazzuan Ahmad Zahari
arrested at an unspeci#ed
location in Kedah State,
likely near the border, in
possession of 18 live
pangolins.

NOV 2014 : Police

o!cer Mohammad
Norazzuan Ahmad Zahari
arrested again on at the
Bukit Kayu Hitam border
checkpoint; 43 live
pangolins were found in
the boot of his car.

ALOR SETAR
SEPT 2018 : A police
o!cer was arrested with
81 live pangolins in a
house rented under his
name. The trial is still
ongoing.

SADAO
CUSTOMS
CHECKPOINT
FEB 2019 : Police
o!cer Ahmad Nasrul Ha##
Mohamad arrested at
Sadao customs checkpoint,
after passing Malaysian
border checks, with 47
 pangolins found in his car.

KEDAH POLICE
HEADQUARTERS
All three police o!cers
worked at the Kedah state
police headquarters.
Investigations suggest that
there is a larger smuggling
ring run by members of
the police and o!cers
from other enforcement
agencies.

We were shown evidence by a government source that links some 12

enforcement o!cers to the pangolin trade, suggesting that there is a wider
network of corruption.

These o!cers range from tra!c cops to high-level border control o!cers, and
the majority are based in the northern state of Kedah, bordering Thailand.

“We are taking this seriously,” says Kedah police chief Zainuddin Yaacob, when
asked about evidence of corruption within his ranks.

“If [police o!cers] are charged or convicted, then we can take action by
suspending them from duty. If they are convicted under criminal charges, then
there is no option but to discharge them from service.”

While most live pangolins passing through Malaysia now originate in Indonesia,
syndicates also used to source them from Malaysian forests.

“In the past, I was moving a lot of stock, hundreds of baskets,” boasted one
pangolin trader. “I’m not lying to you, at least three tons a month, delivered right
to my doorstep.” The trader is a middleman who previously sourced pangolins
from indigenous communities living in the forest. He claims to have left the trade
after being caught in 2014.

“There is less stock in Malaysia now, so they rely on Indonesian stock,” he said.

Over in Sabah, in East Malaysia, a pangolin- While most live

smuggling syndicate has the distinction of being pangolins passing
the only known syndicate to deliver processed
through Malaysia now
frozen pangolins.
originate in Indonesia,
A raid in February 2019 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, syndicates used to
at two premises run by the same syndicate led source them from
to the discovery of a total of 27.9 tons of Malaysian forests.
descaled, gutted, frozen pangolins in huge
freezers. A further 361 kilograms of pangolin
scales made the seizure the largest pangolin
seizure ever recorded.

The way in which the pangolins were being packaged makes it likely they were
meant for export, probably to China, a source familiar with the ongoing
investigation said.

And there are signs that this syndicate has been operating for years.

In 2010, a Malaysian man was arrested on the coast of the southern Chinese port
city of Zhuhai over the shipment of nearly 10 tons of frozen pangolins and
pangolin scales on a #shing vessel. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which
was later reduced to 19 years due to good behavior. Four crew members of the
ship, all of whom were Chinese nationals, were handed #ve- to 10-year
sentences.

1 & 2 A February 2019 bust found almost 30 tons of frozen pangolins and pangolin scales at these two
locations. Sources indicate that the pangolins were likely meant for export by ship from 3 Sepanggar Port to
China. 4 Location where the Chinese authorities suspect pangolins were taken to a shipping vessel that was
subsequently seized in Guangzhou, in a 2010 case. These coordinates were found on the phone of a smuggler
imprisoned in China.

Investigations showed that the man's mobile phone contained a set of trade-
related coordinates, including one pinpointing a location o$ the coast of Sabah,
near Sepanggar Port in Kota Kinabalu. It is the same port area where the record
seizure took place in February 2019.

Interviews with the man’s wife con#rmed that he was involved in pangolin
smuggling, and that he was based in Kota Kinabalu.

She insisted that her husband was not the mastermind behind the operation and
that he was merely working for a syndicate helmed by a prominent businessman
involved in the “frozen seafood business.”

People familiar with the inquiry said that the police are still investigating whether
the same syndicate was behind the 2010 and 2019 cases.

INDONESIA
Cash transfers suggest
sophisticated criminal network

S eized pangolin scales and meat. Money transfers. Shipments to China. Tip-
o$s. These are the hints that point to a network of pangolin smugglers in
Indonesia. Denials. Silence. Lack of direct evidence that could turn unusual
coincidences into bulletproof evidence. These are the challenges faced by law
enforcement, and us as we investigated the pangolin trade in Indonesia.

A review of court records, dozens of interviews with poachers and the police have
provided the clearest indication yet that the pangolin trade in the archipelago
nation has professionalised. It has become so sophisticated that it reminds
experts of the drug trade.

In Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan, pangolins provide an essential balance to the

ecosystem, feeding on pests which a$ect plants such as the oil palm. However,
syndicates in these areas “hunt on a massive scale during the transition from
rainy season to dry season,” Sustyo Iriyono, the o!cial at the Environment and
Forestry Ministry in charge of #ghting the illicit pangolin trade, said in an
interview.

The Malacca Straits has

become a hotspot for
pangolin smuggling
128 pangolins seized - Feb 2013 heading to Malaysia. An
Belawan Customs and Excise O!ce (KPPBC) marine patrol team
analysis of cases reported
seized 128 pangolins as they were being smuggled out towards

Over
Malaysia, one
via the ton
Melaka of
Straits. pangolins seized - June 2017 in the media reveals a
Over a ton of live pangolins, pangolin parts and scales were seized consistent modus
102 pangolins seized - 2013
at a warehouse here. The stash included around 225 individual
operandi: transporting live
pangolins, #ve large 102 live
102 pangolins seized - Nov 2015
sacks ofpangolins seizedand
wet pangolins, at the
fourPort of sacks
large Batubara
of Regency,
dried pangolin
102 pangolins wereskin.
onboard a ship. The ship's captain and four crewmembers
seized here, as smugglers were about to
pangolins across the Straits
were arrested. The captain admitted that he was instructed to
transport them to Malaysia via the Melaka Straits. Nine of the on smaller vessels.
pangolins had died. Mayto 2014
transport the pangolins Malaysia.
89 pangolins seized - Unspeci!ed date
Two persons were arrested while attempting to smuggle four
101 pangolins seized
Police thwarted -a plan
24 toOct 2017
smuggle 89 pangolins to Malaysia. Four
pangolins to Malaysia by ship, from the Tanjung Balai Port.
101 pangolins seized people
by navyfrom
personnel
South as
Sumatra
they were
werebeing
named as suspects. The pangolins
smuggled to Malaysiawere
via boat.
transported by land with two cars to a small port on Bengkalis TAP ON
MARKERS TO SEE
Island, where they were to be smuggled out to Malaysia via boat.

CASE DETAILS

Here, investigators typically aim for the poachers and then try to work their way
up the syndicate through vendors and middlemen. Rarely do they get very far.

The premiums on the trade leave plenty of room for middlemen. In Indonesia, a
poacher might get around $20 for a kilogram of pangolin meat. The same meat
could sell for up to $1,200 elsewhere. The value of pangolin scales multiplies 30-
fold along the supply chain.

Sustyo estimates that Indonesia is the world’s largest illicit exporter of pangolin
meat and scales, even though pangolins in Indonesia cannot compete with the
African subspecies in terms of size. Shipments mostly go to China, sometimes
through Vietnam and Hong Kong.

A Malaysia-bound baby pangolin that was rescued by police in Medan, Indonesia. Dozens of pangolins seized in
the same bust were later released into the wild. Others were given to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences for
research. Credit: Tommy Apriando / Tempo, Mongabay

Asked about the smuggling routes, he said that the trade networks have become
“well organised.”

“In the past, smugglers used cargo planes,” he said. “After this was discovered,
they began altering the manifests of shipping containers. Pangolins are hidden
among export commodities such as dried squid and #sh. Some evade detection
by going through small ports, where #shing boats are involved.”

We retraced some recent seizures near Medan, Sumatra’s largest city, and found
indications of an extensive trade network.

The port city is already known as a major smuggling hub. Police Brigadier General
Dedi Prasetyo, a national police spokesman, told us that Medan in northern
Sumatra, Surabaya in eastern Java and Pontianak in western Kalimantan are the
most signi#cant transit locations for pangolins. They are often concealed in
frozen #sh, squid and oysters, Dedi said.

Medan, one of Indonesia’s largest transport hubs, is often used as a port of exit for pangolin smugglers.

Several seizures and court cases point to a network linked to a man called Robert
Ongah. Also known by the nickname Atiam, he could not be reached for
comment despite several attempts.

“I represent Pak Robert,” said an employee of an alcoholic beverages maker in

Jakarta, using a deferential term. “He has no comment, and all of the questions in
the interview request are wrong.”

Ongah is the owner of Tetap Jaya, a frozen #sh export company, with an o!ce in
Medan, among other ventures. He also controls other enterprises, including the
brewer, where we reached an employee in Jakarta. Police o!cers told us that
they traced at least 50 billion Indonesian rupiah, or about $3.5 million, of
transfers from suspected intermediaries to him.

More than half of these funds were traced coming from Ongah’s accounts going
to the account of one Edy Soerja Susanto, police said. These funds then reached
wildlife dealers who were later arrested.

It is unclear whether Edy is being investigated. Reached by phone, he denied

involvement in the pangolin trade. “I don’t know Robert Ongah,” he said, before
ending the call.

The network appeared even wider and tied to other, more sinister, crimes,
investigators told us. Dian Ediana Rae, the deputy chair of the Financial
Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, said some transactions linked the
network to the notorious convicted drug lord Togiman.

Togiman has been sentenced to death twice, in 2016 and 2017, for various
narcotics cases, including for continuing his operations behind bars. His bank
account balance: 6.4 trillion rupiah, or $458 million.

PHILIPPINES
Law no deterrent to poaching syndicates

I n July 2019, a Philippine court convicted three men of violating the country’s
wildlife protection law. They were caught in possession of 10 Philippine
pangolins, a domestic subspecies, at a checkpoint in Tagaytay City, Cavite, some
60 kilometres south of the capital Manila.

While the case was called the #rst successful conviction of wildlife tra!ckers from
Palawan – where the Philippine pangolin is endemic – the penalty for the crime
was light. The court sentenced each poacher to three months of imprisonment
and a #ne of 20,000 pesos, or about $385. In August, the three men posted bail
and #led a petition for probation.

Emerson Sy, executive director of the Philippine Center for Terrestrial and
Aquatic Research, said that given such penalties, the law itself is not a deterrent
to poachers.

“What’s noteworthy is that the same people are involved [in the illegal trade]. For
example, one main buyer who is a foreign national has already been caught
many times but still operates. Because the penalty in illegal wildlife trade – it’s
bailable – if a poacher gets caught, he only posts bail, then he can get out,” Sy
said.

Ten pangolins seized by the Philippine authorities in Tagaytay City in June. 2019 Three men were arrested. ©
Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines

Sy is one of the authors of a report that analyzed seizure data in the Philippines
from 2001 to 2017. The report, published in 2018 by TRAFFIC, a global NGO
working to investigate the wildlife trade, found 38 seizure incidents involving 667
pangolins. The #gure is small compared with volumes reported elsewhere, but
considering that the populations of Philippine pangolins have declined by more
than 50% over 21 years, it is a signi#cant number.

Sy said the seizure data they analyzed from di$erent sources may just be “the tip
of the iceberg.”

“The Philippine pangolin can only be found in the Philippines, in the province of
Palawan, so the habitat is really small,” he said. “Any disturbance based on
additional poaching and so on has a huge e$ect on them.”

TRAFFIC researchers believe that demand has increased over the past decade.
One factor, Sy said, is the increasing demand, especially in Metro Manila, where
pangolin meat is sold as a luxury food item and its scales are sold for traditional
medicine.

The three men who were caught in Tagaytay City smuggled the 10 pangolins out
of Palawan for illegal trade in the capital.

But Sy explained that domestically, most people who consume pangolin meat are
still foreigners “because [Filipinos] don’t have a tradition of eating pangolins.”
Some locals also consume it, he said, but only when they happen to encounter it,
as they wouldn’t intentionally look for it.

“The Philippine pangolin can only be

found in Palawan, so the habitat is really
small. Any disturbance based on
additional poaching has a huge effect on
them.”

Pangolin meat can sell for US$3 to US$5 per kilogram, while scales sell from
US$130 to US$190 per kilogram. Meanwhile, the TRAFFIC report said that in
Metro Manila, live or frozen pangolins and cooked pangolins sell for US$233 and
US$272, respectively.

“The poachers, the ones who hunt the pangolin, are usually Filipinos. The
middlemen, those who go to the communities to ask them to hunt, could be
either Filipinos or foreign nationals. The middleman will then pass it on to the
wholesalers or the consolidators, who could be either a Filipino or a foreign
national. That consolidator could be the one to sell the pangolin directly, or
there’s another layer from another location, for example, in Metro Manila. From
that point, that goes directly to the buyer,” Sy explained.

The majority of seizures occur around Palawan, and in the Metro Manila area, where there is increasing demand
for its meat and scales. Data: TRAFFIC

However, as Sy pointed out, those in the “lower levels” of the smuggling chain –
the poachers and tra!ckers – are often the “sacri#cial lambs” who get arrested
by law enforcement.

Data from the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), the agency
mandated to implement the Philippines’ wildlife law in the island province,
showed that 33 people were arrested in relation to the illegal pangolin trade
from 2010 to 2018. At least 16 criminal cases were #led during the same period.

“We have to #nd the ones who order the hunting, those who #nance it. Because if
you don’t arrest them, poaching will never end,” Sy said.

In 2016, the Philippines proposed uplisting the Philippine pangolin to Appendix I

of CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora). The government proposal said that the Philippine pangolin is
“threatened with extinction and is detrimentally a$ected by international trade
and habitat loss,” and that it “has been documented in international trade with
China and Malaysia, and possibly with Vietnam.”

The 2018 TRAFFIC report, meanwhile, said that international trade routes could
not be determined from the seizure data that the authors analyzed because
“many of the records are without background information aside from the
location of seizure and type and quantity of pangolin parts seized.”

“Foreign nationals (for example from mainland “We have to find the
China and Taiwan) residing in the country have ones who order the
also been implicated in several seizures,” the
hunting, those who
report said, adding that it remains uncertain
finance it. Because if
“whether this feeds a local market catering to
visitors and/or foreign nationals residing in the
you don’t arrest them,
country or an international market.”
poaching will never
end.”
Sy pointed out, however, that local demand for
pangolin scales used in traditional medicine is
not as signi#cant as overseas demand. “The
demand is mainly in China and Vietnam, where
the scales are used,” he said.

With all these challenges on multiple fronts, there is still much to be done. There
is also a lack of public awareness about the Philippine pangolin, which is
considered one of the least studied species of pangolin.

In 2018, di$erent conservation groups in the country came together and

designed a 25-year roadmap for the conservation of the Philippine pangolin. The
PCSD will conduct a study to identify the population strongholds of the Palawan
pangolin, with the end goal of declaring these areas as critical habitats for further
protection.

INDIA-MYANMAR BORDER
Smuggling, linked to other crimes,
finances militancy

H ere in the remote jungles of India’s Manipur State bordering Myanmar, the
pace of life can often feel languid. The forests have grown back where
British and invading Japanese troops once engaged in hand-to-hand combat in
World War II.

Amidst the lush hills is Churachandpur, a typical border town where shops –
selling cheap Chinese clothing and other hardware – spill out onto the monsoon-
drenched streets.

But the outward calm hides a lively underground economy run by wildlife
tra!ckers and arms smugglers.

“There is hardly anything that you cannot get in Churachandpur,” said a #eld
o!cer from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) who requested to remain
anonymous, “from rhino horns to pangolin scales, or geckos to arms and
ammunition.”

Churachandpur’s notorious reputation stems from its location on the border with
Myanmar, but most of the wildlife ends up in China.

India shares a porous 1,600-kilometre border with Myanmar. Not surprisingly,

these states are common routes for illegal tra!cking networks involving wildlife
smuggling, drug syndicates and the occasional militants.

Churachandpur, a border town between India and Myanmar. It is known to authorities as a smuggling hotspot
for drugs, #rearms, and wildlife including pangolins.

“Sometimes, drugs are also traded with animal parts. Drugs are pushed in
through these routes to the Indian side with the help of militant out#ts that
frequent these routes,” a retired Manipur police o!cial told us.

The militants in India’s northeast are also a source of arms and ammunition for
smugglers in the region, we were told.

“The buyers normally come to Churachandpur or Dimapur in Nagaland,” said an

undercover wildlife agent. He is part of a special investigation team set up by the
state government in 2008 to stop rhino poaching.
 Most of the pangolins smuggled through India are destined for Yunnan, China, through Myanmar.

Not too long ago, rhino horns and tiger parts “There is hardly
were most heavily tra!cked through these anything that you
routes, but increased global attention has
cannot get in
reduced demand in China. Now, pangolins and
Churachandpur, from
other wildlife have taken their place,
investigators said.
rhino horns to pangolin
scales, or geckos to
“This network #rst smuggled rhino horns, but it arms and
has diversi#ed into pangolins, geckos and other ammunition.”
wildlife,” said the agent, who has conducted
regular sting operations.

“We have in recent times been able to stop the poaching of one-horned rhinos
and smuggling of its horns,” said a WCCB spokesperson. “But we have noticed a
sudden rise in seizures of pangolins from the region.”

“The recent increase in rescues indicates that there is a racket in smuggling out
pangolins,” says Rathin Barman, joint director of the Wildlife Trust of India and
head of the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation Conservation (CWRC).

But the numbers of captured animals are still small. WCCB o!cers have
con#scated 10 live pangolins in the past three years from northeast Indian states.
The Assam State Zoo is caring for pangolins rescued from tra!ckers between
January 2007 and July 2019.

A rescued pangolin at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation near Kaziranga National Park in
Assam, India. © Dauharu Baro / Wildlife Trust of India / International Fund for Animal Welfare

An additional 10 pangolins were also recently rescued from tra!ckers, who

abandoned them to evade a dragnet operation by law enforcement agencies. In
August, the CWRC found a dead pangolin in an abandoned bag at a bus stop in
Upper Assam.

India, while not a consumer of pangolins, is a source country for Indian and
Chinese pangolin subspecies. Farmers, traditional snake-charming communities
like the Sapera, and the semi-nomadic Bawariyasin often sell the animals to the
middlemen for up to 70,000 rupees, a local fortune that equals roughly US$1,000,
the wildlife o!cers said.

The pangolins are then taken to Manipur State and smuggled across the border
to Myanmar, and on to China, the o!cers said.

RELATED: Pangolin Smuggling Thrives As Rhino Poaching Declines

Pangolins are not the only Indian native animal facing massive threats to their
survival. The tree-dwelling tokay gecko – erroneously believed to be a cure for
cancer and HIV/AIDS, and said to fetch prices of up to one million rupees – is also
being smuggled into China via the same routes.

“Even though the animals have protection status, rhinos and tigers get all the
attention,” said the Assam-based conservation activist Baibhav Talukder. “The
punishment for poaching of rhinos and pangolins are similar, but our law
enforcement agencies weren’t as concerned about pangolins until recently.”

“Wildlife tra!cking should be seen as a national security threat and not merely
the smuggling of animals,” he said.

NEPAL
A new trafficking hub?

I n March, two men aged 40 and 34 were intercepted at Tribhuvan International

Airport in Kathmandu carrying 162 kilograms of pangolin scales in their check-
in luggage.

The pair had picked up the scales in the Democratic Republic of Congo, transited
in Istanbul, then attempted to transit again in Nepal on their way to Shanghai.
They are now at the Nakkhu Jail on the outskirts of Kathmandu, where they are
awaiting trial.

Their arrest was a watershed moment: It was the largest recorded seizure of
pangolin scales in Nepal and the #rst haul from an African pangolin species. It led
police to worry that Nepal has become a new transit point for pangolins heading
to China.

ISTANBUL ATATÜRK
AIRPORT

Two Chinese nationals

smuggled 162 kilograms of
pangolins scales via
commercial "ights from
TRIBHUVAN INTERNATIONAL the Democratic Republic of
AIRPORT
Congo, to Istanbul, to
Kathmandu, where they
were arrested. They
wanted to travel to
Shanghai, China.

N'DJILI INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT

Information extracted from their mobile phones revealed that they were
communicating with Chinese wildlife smugglers via WeChat, a Chinese messaging
and payment app. Investigations identi#ed a Nepali, a Bangladeshi and a Chinese
accomplice. The three are still at large.

“This is a distinct case of international organised crime, but it is just the tip of the
iceberg,” said Birendra Johari of the Nepali police’s Central Investigation Bureau.
“Our investigations show that pangolins in recent times have become the most
poached wildlife in Nepal.”

Although Nepal lies on the traditional wildlife smuggling route between India and
China, it has so far avoided the large-scale seizures seen in places like Singapore,
Vietnam and Hong Kong. The bulk of arrests to date involve small amounts of
locally poached pangolins with no apparent connections to larger syndicates.

However, experts say they are concerned that this is changing. One reason is
improving infrastructure.

Members of a community-based anti-poaching unit removing animal snares in Kavre district, Nepal. Nepal has
not recorded any major busts so far, but wildlife law enforcement experts say that pangolins have become the
most poached wildlife in the country in recent years. © Zoological Society of London / Himalayan Nature

The reopening of the Tatopani-Kodari border crossing with China earlier this year
after it was destroyed during the 2015 earthquake, the increasing use of the
Rasuwa-Kerung border crossing, and the prospect of a new trans-Himalayan
railway line could all make Nepal a more attractive transit point for tra!ckers.
Police in the Dolakha district, bordering China, also speak of rising demand that
has led to the near disappearance of the animal.

RELATED: Nepal-China Connectivity Aids Wildlife Smuggling

“Nepal is already a signatory of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which could
increase market access and tra!cking of wildlife,” said Kumar Paudel of
Greenhood Nepal, a conservancy group, adding that pangolins from Africa, India
and Bangladesh were already being intercepted in Nepal en route to China.

Just #ve months before the arrest in Kathmandu, there was an almost identical
case, in which two Chinese nationals were arrested smuggling suitcases full of
pangolin scales from Congo.

Except this arrest was made, not in Nepal, but in Hong Kong.

HONG KONG
Two imprisoned smugglers describe their trade

H ong Kong has been a hotspot for shipping pangolin scales since 2014, with
tons of container shipments seized from Africa, and smaller seizures by
speedboat and individual smugglers arriving by air.

Although Traditional Chinese Medicine still plays an important role in the

territory – there are more than 7,100 licensed TCM medicines traders here – local
dealers we met undercover told us that they were not interested in large
amounts of scales because the local demand was just too small.

“The risks (of selling scales) compared to the pro#ts are too high. It’s not worth it,”
a shop owner told us, “this business is better in the mainland.”

At the Lo Wu Correctional Institution, a prison, we found two small-time

tra!ckers who were willing to discuss their actions.

The two Chinese women are serving time for attempting to smuggle some 110
kilograms of pangolin scales in four suitcases from Hong Kong International
Airport to Macau by ferry, en route from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

One of them, aged 41, told us about her humble origins in China, her time in
Congo, her plans to travel home to China and her arrest at the Hong Kong ferry
terminal in August this year. Both are from the Guangxi region in southern China
and asked not to be identi#ed to speak more freely.

The prison where the two smugglers are being held. Credit: Karen Zhang / The South China Morning Post

They said that a man they called Li Guangsheng had invited them to Congo to
invest in beauty parlours last year. Li ran a construction business in Kinshasa, the
capital, they said. “I was told that there are a lot of Chinese there and business
was good,” one of the inmates said.

Li hosted and provided for them during their one-month stay in Kinshasa from
October to November last year, they said. Then Li supposedly asked them to take
four suitcases to Macau, the gambling hub.

They "ew from Kinshasa to Hong Kong through Casablanca, in Morocco, and
Doha, a circuitous route they said was cheaper than a direct "ight.

Their statements could not be veri#ed, nor could contact information for Li be
found.

CASABLANCA MOHAMMED V
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, MOROCCO

In 2018, two Chinese

women were arrested
while bringing 110
HONG KONG kilograms of pangolin
INTERNATIONAL scales from Kinshasa, via
HAMAD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Morocco and Qatar, to
HONG KONG
AIRPORT, QATAR INTERNATIONAL Hong Kong. Their
AIRPORT
destination was Macau,
they said.

MACAU FERRY
TERMINAL

N'DJILI INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT, DR CONGO

The women were arrested

at the Hong Kong
International Airport while
attempting to travel to
Macau by ferry.

The women had been

instructed by an
acquaintance in Congo to
pass the scales on to a
stranger in Macau, they
said. Had the trip gone
according to plan, those
four suitcases of pangolin
scales would have travelled
some 17,000 kilometres on
commercial routes.

The two women were caught at Hong Kong airport during a routine customs X-
ray check. Their suitcases contained the scales of 302 pangolins, at a total weight
of 110 kilograms, wrapped in tin foil bags. Prosecutors later estimated that the
scales could be worth as much as $71,000.

When we visited them in pre-trial custody before their sentencing, both women
claimed that they did not know what they had been transporting. “We thought it
was dried seafood,” one of them said.

They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 16 months in prison for importing a
protected wildlife product without a license.

The court heard the pair’s case after new legislation passed in November 2018,
increasing penalties for pangolin tra!cking. Now, the crime is punishable with a
#ne of up to 10 million Hong Kong dollars, or roughly $1.3 million, and up to 10
years in prison.

During a visit after their sentencing, one of the two inmates changed her story.
She said that she knowingly tra!cked pangolins, but said that they did not expect
to be jailed.

These are the 110 kilograms of pangolin scales wrapped in tin foil that the women tried to smuggle through
Hong Kong to Macau. © Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department

Li told them about the scales, she said. “He said if we got caught, he would pay
the #ne and we would be #ne,” she said. “We trusted him.”

“I heard that someone bringing ivory for him was arrested in Hong Kong before,”
the inmate said, “but that the person was released after paying a #ne.”

Their case is not the only one. In mid-November last year, a man from China’s
Fujian Province was sentenced to 20 months in prison for smuggling 48 kilograms
of pangolin scales from the Democratic Republic of Congo via Ethiopia to Hong
Kong.

The two women are still serving time, spending their days washing dishes and
cleaning "oors at a prison kitchen. As soon as they are released, they plan to
return home to Guangxi. “We will be sent to the border and then take high-speed
trains to go home,” said one, with a wry smile.
 VIETNAM
Trafficking route brimming with business

O n an early summer morning in the Vietnamese tourist town of Ha Long, we

meet a man surnamed Chen at a bar that will soon turn to its daytime
trades of milk tea and currency exchange.

Chen runs a restaurant, but also tries to earn additional cash by showing tourists
around and smuggling ivory and pangolins. Born in 1988, he lives alone in a
messy apartment on the outskirts of Ha Long. Chen showed three pangolin
scales as samples of his trade to us (we were reporting undercover, feigning
interest in buying scales). “You can wait at home in China, we deliver to your
doorstep,” he said.

His prices depend on provenance. Asian pangolin scales go for 3,200 Chinese
renminbi, or around $450, but African scales cost a mere 1,300 renminbi, or
$180, per kilogram. Because of the legal risks, he only takes orders above 10
kilograms at those prices. For smaller orders, he would charge a premium.

The pangolin scales Chen showed us as samples of his trade. An expert later told us that the scales came from
an Asian pangolin.

His supply comes from Laos. But he claimed he did not know how they went
from Africa or elsewhere in Asia to Southeast Asia’s only landlocked country. He
boasted that once smuggled to China, his goods, which also include bear paws
and ivory tusks, can be delivered across the country, except for the northeastern
provinces. Estimated delivery time: four days.

There is an oft-used land route from Laos through Vietnam to China, according to
our review of local media reports from 2011 to 2019. Over 3,000 live pangolins
have been seized while being tra!cked in a total of 44 seizure cases in the land
route that extends from Cau Treo at the Laotian border to Móng Cái at the
Chinese border.

MÓNG CÁI

CAU TREO BORDER PASS

Data compiled from media

reports on pangolin
seizures between 2011 and
September 2019 show that
almost 50 percent of all
reported cases of busts in
Vietnam took place along
the highway connecting
the Laotian border in Cau
Treo to the Chinese border
at Móng Cái. This suggests
an established smuggling
route.

The border towns of

Dongxing and Móng Cái
have become wildlife
smuggling hubs for
pangolin. Residents in
these border towns can
apply for a special day pass
that allows them to cross
the border with minimal
checks. Investigations
show that this often
facilitates smuggling
activities.

But trade is much bigger by air and sea cargo. Overall, police and customs have
con#scated over 43 tons of pangolin scales and over 24 tons of frozen pangolins
between 2011 and 2019, according to our review. Anecdotal evidence suggests
that the majority of the bulk cargo originated from African countries, including
Nigeria and Cameroon.

In our conversations, Chen mentioned the Chinese border town of Dongxing as a

major smuggling hub, so we went there. The town, along with its sister town of
Móng Cái in Vietnam, has "ourished because of the border trade. The two cities
are practically one, were it not for the heavy surveillance and forti#cations that
attempt to control and tax the bustling undeclared border trade.

The town of Dongxing, China, can be seen in the distance from its sister border town of Móng Cái in Vietnam.
Here, our undercover journalists discovered an active underground trade route in wildlife including pangolins.

It seems that the crossing of checkpoints here is a mere formality in lives lived on
both sides. Residents in both towns said that they used special passes, allowing
them to cross the border with minimal checks, as long as their stays were brief
and limited to the border area.

On the Vietnamese side, we met Hoang Anh, a taxi driver who previously made a
living peddling iPhones bought in China. He showed us a photo of himself with
his brother and seven pangolins.

A screenshot of a WeChat post by Hoang Anh, a taxi driver who is also running a side business illegally trading
wildlife in Móng Cái.

The photo, dated June, was meant to prove that he could supply the animal at its
freshest: alive. His buyers, he said, were mostly people interested in pangolin
meat for special meals.

The going rate for pangolins is 1,250 renminbi per kilogram, which brings a live
animal of about #ve kilograms to 5,000-6,000 renminbi. He said that thanks to
bribes and connections, delivering to China would not be a problem.

TAIWAN
How poachers turned into conservationists

Deep in Taiwan’s Luanshan forest in the dark of the night, Yu Man-jung spotted
some tracks on the ground. “There was a pangolin just here,” Yu pointed out to
the team of researchers behind him. Yu, also known as A-yung, moved quickly in
the pursuit of more traces. He had developed a keen eye for spotting any signs of
the shy scaly anteater over the years in his former career as a poacher.

Before he started working with pangolin researchers at National Pingtung

University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Yu was poaching pangolins for a
living. That was years ago, before pangolin researcher Hsun Ching-min hired Yu
to help track the animal for research. For Yu, the new income helped o$set the
loss in revenue caused by stricter controls and falling domestic demand in
pangolin meat.

A native of the mountainous terrain, Yu had spent much of his life around
pangolins. The knowledge of the forest and his instincts for #nding the reclusive
animal have since been credited by researchers for several signi#cant successes
in the #eld.

“If not for A-yung, I wouldn’t have known where the pangolins were,” says Hsun
admiringly, using Yu’s nickname. “He was always a trailblazer in the pangolin
patrol team.”

“Without a local to lead the way, we would not have been able to #nd pangolins,
no matter how advanced our technology is,” said Hsun.

Yu passed away in 2016 in an accident. However, his contribution to pangolin

research and conservation is not forgotten. Hsun is leading ongoing research in
Luanshan, Taitung, to better understand wild pangolins and their consumption
habits.

Pangolin research can be hard work, involving “Without a local to

many – mostly unsuccessful – hours of tracking, lead the way, we would
analysis of food sources, and even stool-sni!ng.
not have been able to
Hsun, who has tracked down 47 wild pangolins find pangolins, no
in eight years of research, jokingly calls himself matter how advanced
“the man who has collected the most pangolin our technology is.”
faeces in the world.”

The pangolin researcher Hsun Ching-min has spent eight years trekking down wild pangolins to learn more
about the shy, reclusive animal. Credit: Tsai Yao-Cheng / The Reporter

Studying pangolin compost and stool are essential indicators of the animal’s
nutrition. But the stool is hard to #nd. Pangolins only excrete once a day. They
bury their faeces to cover their tracks, which makes it di!cult for researchers like
Hsun to collect stool samples.

Hsun developed and patented a technique to segregate pangolin stool

components, and worked with the Taipei Zoo to further analyse the volume and
digestive rate of di$erent ant species in pangolin stools.

Pangolins are notoriously di!cult to care for in captivity, and rescued pangolins
frequently die from stress and failure to eat. With Hsun’s research, NPUST hopes
to learn more about pangolins’ eating habits to improve the survival rates of
future rescues.

Taiwan today has become a success story in pangolin conservation, but things
were di$erent just half a century ago. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Taiwan
exported nearly 60,000 pangolin leather pieces every year. As a result, pangolins
almost became extinct.

A newborn pangolin was manually fed at the Endemic Species Research Institute First Aid Station, which is one of
the three pangolin rescue centres in Taiwan. Credit: Yu Chih-Wei / The Reporter

It was only in 1989 that commercial hunting and export were banned after the
government established the Wildlife Conservation Act. Today, the population
density of Taiwanese pangolins is one of the highest in the world.

RELATED: How Taiwan Plans To Save Pangolins From Extinction

While legislative reform and public awareness have mostly ended the illegal
trade, Taiwan remains a smuggling transit point to mainland China.

Just last year, Kaohsiung customs o!cials intercepted 3,880 descaled and
disembowelled pangolin bodies in a container that originated from Malaysia. In
another notable seizure, the Coast Guard Administration seized #ve Taiwan
pangolins, along with Asian yellow pond turtles and yellow-margined box turtles
in 2015.

These, too, were all believed to be en route to mainland China.

In January 2018, a shipping container was found with 3,880 descaled and disembowelled pangolins at Kaohsiung
Port. According to a source at the customs department, the shipment was believed to have originated in
Kuching, Malaysia, and was likely en route to mainland China.

Today, Hsun has honed his skills at #nding wild pangolins, although he admits
that he mostly relies on luck. We hiked with him up a mountain along the same
route that Yu, the former poacher, used. An hour into the hike, we found an old
burrow buried underneath a pile of leaves and weeds.

An indigenous resident of the area pointed to a nearby slope. “There’s a burrow

and it’s quite new,” he said. We crawled on all fours, holding onto the bamboo to
keep our footing, until we spotted the deep underground burrow. It had the fresh
remains of a palm-sized ant mound next to it, the remnants of a pangolin's feast.

Pangolin researcher Hsun Ching-min examining a pangolin burrow. He relies on local guides to look for the
animal, which he studies to improve the survival rates of future rescues. Credit: Tsai Yao-Cheng / The Reporter

Hsun marvelled at our good luck. Our #nd was a rare one. “This burrow was dug
only in the past two days,” he said. “It usually becomes mouldy after that.”

Hsun suggests that the government should employ residents like Yu as guides or
ecological conservationists. It should utilise their knowledge and skills to push for
even higher conservation goals.

“Perhaps, we can even make Luanshan a world-standard pangolin conservation

centre,” he said.

CHINA
Activism meets lack of transparency

W e’re back in mainland China. In April, we found #ve pangolins at a zoo in

the southern city of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. They had been
seized in a sting operation on smugglers in a nearby town a few weeks earlier.
The provincial forestry administration ordered them temporarily housed at the
zoo. They ended up in a cage formerly used for lizards.

The origin of the animals remains unknown, but o!cers said that the animals
had been taken to China through Vietnam and then to Meizhou, a southern town
about 400 kilometres east of Guangzhou. Customs o!cers seized a total of 103
pangolins in the bust. Of these, 82 were taken to Guangxi region and 21 were
kept in Guangdong. Most of these 21 pangolins died shortly after that.

The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, an

advocacy group, dispatched a sta$ member, Sophia Zhang, from Beijing to
Guangzhou to care for the remaining animals.

At the zoo, Zhang set up a live camera and shared updates on Weibo, China’s
Twitter-like social media platform, to bring the animals’ plight to the attention of
possible donors. Volunteers in Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar and
Laos, collected and froze ants for Zhang and had them delivered to Guangzhou
to feed the animals.

Despite her best e$orts, two animals died in April, leaving only three survivors.
Veterinarians from a nearby pet hospital and vet students from a local university
volunteered to help Zhang prepare their food, using chopsticks to loosen the
frozen ants, and clean their cages. “I’m happy they eat well,” she told us.
“Pangolins are like humans when under shock.”

A pangolin rescued in a sting operation in Guangzhou, China, earlier this year. A veterinarian who has been
caring for her said the death of a fellow rescued pangolin had incurred anxiety in the remaining pangolins. ©
Sophia Zhang

The three pangolins were trailblazers. It is the #rst time in China that the
authorities allowed a non-law enforcement, non-pro#t organisation to assist in
the care of a seized animals, a spokesperson for the foundation said.

The foundation has been jubilant. It had been pushing for access to seized
pangolins since 2017. Last year, it even #led a lawsuit to get access to another
batch of 32 con#scated animals. The case is ongoing. Perhaps these three
pangolins could set an example for the court case and future cases.

The zoo proved to be only a temporary home. By May, the foundation found a
space in Qingyuan, a nearby town, where the animals could be slowly released
into a state of near freedom.

RELATED: How You Can Help Save The Species

A real estate company had secured a green space of several hundred square
meters that is encircled by its residential buildings. There was enough space for
the animals to live on relatively peaceful terms. It would be the #rst release of
seized pangolins into semi-wild conditions in China, the foundation said.

After a few days, the pangolins began to become familiar with their new
environment. They began to dig for food and appeared to be developing an
appetite.

But one was struggling to breathe and moved more slowly.

Customs o!cials in China rescued this pangolin from smugglers in early 2019. She later died, despite best e$orts
by volunteers and veterinarians. Credit: Handout

As its condition deteriorated, volunteers put the animal in a box and rushed it to
the animal hospital in Guangzhou. By the time they arrived, the pangolin was
declared dead.

The real estate company’s sta$ lack the experience Zhang has in taking care of
the remaining two pangolins. The two survivors have been struggling with anxiety
since the death, she said.

In June, the foundation asked the government to take the two animals back into a
shelter or allow for their release into the wild. On July 3, they were picked up by
 o!cials from the forestry administration.

It is unclear what happened to the two animals. The bureau declined to

comment.

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CREDITS

LEAD REPORTERS WEB DEVELOPMENT & DESIGN EDITORS

Xu Jiaming, China
Elroi Yee, R.AGE, Malaysia
Karen Zhang, The South China Morning Post, Hong
Kong
REPORTERS
Tommy Apriando, Tempo & Mongabay, Indonesia
Sonia Awale, The Nepali Times, Nepal
Trang Bùi, Centre for Media and Development
Initiatives, Vietnam
Ying Chan, Hong Kong
Jane Chu, ADMCF, Hong Kong
Keith Anthony Fabro, Rappler, Philippines
Jee Geronimo, Rappler, Philippines
Sahana Ghosh, India
Erwan Hermawan, Tempo, Indonesia
Chiraprapa Koonlachoti, ThaiPublica, Thailand
Janet Lin Hui-chen, The Reporter, Taiwan
Lyra Lu, Hong Kong
Samuel Ogundipe, Premium Times, Nigeria
Anu Nkeze Paul, Green Echoes, Cameroon
Aliza Shah Muhammad Shah, R.AGE
Anup Sharma, India
Roy Tang, Hong Kong
volunteers. Some reporting expenses were funded
Johenson Goh, R.AGE, Malaysia Patrick Boehler, Switzerland
Mandy Leong, R.AGE, Malaysia Ying Chan, Hong Kong
Husna Ab Rahman, R.AGE, Malaysia Samantha Chow, R.AGE, Malaysia
Yasmin Zulhaime, R.AGE, Malaysia Wahyu Dhyatmika, Tempo, Indonesia
Roy Tang, Hong Kong Kunda Dixit, The Nepali Times, Nepal
Mishty Negi, Hong Kong Hu Pili, Hong Kong
Sherry Lee, The Reporter, Taiwan
VISUALS
Tommy Apriando, Tempo & Mongabay, Indonesia SPECIAL THANKS TO
Samuel Ogundipe, Premium Times, Nigeria Ian Yee, Executive Producer, R.AGE
Puah Sze Ning, R.AGE Soh Sze Jean, Legal advisor, Star Media Group
Tsai Yao-Cheng, The Reporter Berhad
Xu Jiaming, China Ross Settles
Elroi Yee, R.AGE Dominique Soguel-dit-Picard
Yu Chih-Wei, The Reporter Cheddar Media, Hong Kong
Karen Zhang, The South China Morning Post Jervois One (HK) Ltd., Hong Kong
Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong
COPY EDITORS IJNet
Yenni Kwok, Hong Kong AAJA Asia
Joyce Lau, Hong Kong The CITES Secretariat
Global Investigative Journalism Network
Environmental Investigation Agency
FUNDING
TRAFFIC
Participating media organisations and pro-bono
by ADM Capital Foundation, Hong Kong.

CONTACT
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