Published: Monday June 1, 2009 MYT 3:36:00 PM
Illegal wildlife traders rake in RM100mil in 3 months
By STEPHEN THEN
MIRI: The illicit and often-cruel trade in wildlife and wildlife-parts raked in more than RM100mil in profits for illegal hunters and smugglers in five South East Asean countries, including Malaysia, during the first three months of this year alone.
ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (Asean-Wen) said that the money-spinning illegal trade involved endangered animals on the verge of extinction.
Asean-Wen's Secretariat, in a statment to The Star, said the grouping had, during the January to March period, uncovered and busted more than 15 major networks involved in the illegal trade of animals.
''These major wildlife operations took place in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Some 14.8 tonnes of animals parts were seized.
''More than 5,410 live and dead animals were discovered (from the busted smugglers and traders).
“More than 200 tonnes of illegal timber was also seized.
''These items were worth more than US$30mil in the blackmarket, not including the timber seized,'' the secretariat’s coordinating unit's senior liaison officer Klairoong Poon Pon said in the statement.
He said the authorities in the five countries made 38 arrests during the first three months of this year.
Among the animals and animal-parts confiscated were Bengali tigers, African elephants, black panthers, Malayan sunbears, blood pythons, clouded monitor lizards, civet cats, Sumatran tigers, exotic birds, parrots, cockatoos, leopards, boars, owls and monkeys.
''On January 9, the Malaysian police in Penang had a standoff with 12 men during a hostage drama after a wildlife trade went sour.
“The police eventually arrested the 12, seven of them Malaysians and the other five Indonesians,'' the statement said.
It said Asean-Wen would continue to step up its enforcement raids throughout the region with the help of all the enforcement agencies such as the police and the wildlife department in the respective countries to try to stop the blatant cruelty against wildlife.
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