Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) customs officers seized their largest haul of pangolin scales today. Nearly 712kg of smuggled goods were caught by officials, from shipments originating in Africa. The street value of the scales has been placed at RM9,184,800 ($2.12 million USD), and came from 2 separate seizures.
The first shipment was discovered May 2, in eight gunny sacks of the scales weighing 408kg that were being kept in an airport warehouse. They are believed to have arrived on a flight from Accra, Ghana, which transited in Dubai. Forty-eight later, 10 more parcels coming in at 304kg were discovered by officials. Paperwork suggests they came aboard a flight from Kinshasa, DR Congo, then to Nairobi, Kenya, going again through Dubai before landing at KLIA.
The “world’s most hunted animal” is often the target of poachers. Their illicit trade makes up for 20% of the entire wildlife black market. Pushing them to extinction, those who trade their scaly shell, made of keratin and basically like a fingernail, sell it on to eager buyers in Vietnam and China, who erroneously believe it to have medicinal properties. It does not. The shy animals are native to Southeast Asia, and are protected under the UN’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. However, activists argue that very little has been done to protect the animals, and that often smugglers and poachers receive inadequate punishment.
Reader Interactions