China Exclusive: China's animal smugglers get harder to track

Recent cases involving illegal trafficking and sales of endangered wild animals have heightened the grim challenges of China's battle to protect wildlife.

In early November in Jiangmen City, Guangdong, customs officers seized 2,674 frozen pangolin, taken from the wild in several southeast Asian countries and shipped to China. Officers involved were appalled by the scale and severity of their find.

"Most of the pangolin were quite young, skinned and frozen. It was a very, very discomforting scene," said one officer.

Last month, Beijing forestry police seized 800 kilograms of ivory, along with rhino horns and bear claws. In mid-November, two men in southwestern China's Sichuan province were detained for trafficking more than a ton of bear meat and fat, believed to cure rheumatism.

In October, a two-month campaign against poaching, trading and smuggling of wild animals has been waged across China.

Wildlife smuggling crimes can lead to 10 years or more in prison, but harsh punitive measures have not deterred the perpetrators. Custom staff say wildlife crime has taken on new traits in the last few years, with increased cross-border trade and online transactions.

EVEN HARDER TO TRACK

The scales of the pangolin are believed to boost breastfeeding, cure certain skin disease and have wider medical applications. There are no more than 100,000 pangolin left in China and the species is listed as endangered. The rarity of the animal has led to sharp rise in the profits of pursuing. "An average sailor involved in pangolin smuggling earns at least 10,000 yuan (1,600 U.S. dollars) from a single trip, and profits are much higher for their bosses," said Lyu Guanjun, deputy director of the anti-smuggling squad at the Jiangmen customs.

The criminals are now better organized with good counter-intelligence, officers say. They use typhoons as cover to make landings. Communication is only one way, making them difficult to track. If they get word of investigators on the way, they throw the goods and their phones into the sea.

Transactions through chatgroups and other social media have also helped suspects evade investigators. Coded language is used. "Pangolin are called rats or earth dragon, and pythons are called the long worm," said Li Wenjiang, deputy director of Guangdong forest police .

"There is no rule to follow in these languages, sometimes they use numbers to refer to the animals," he said.

In the 13th Five Year Plan, China has pledged better management of import and export of wildlife and to strike hard at illegal trade in wild animals.

Law enforcers have called for better public awareness, international cooperation and multi-organizational collaboration to battle the traffickers.

"Tip-offs from the public are one of the most important ways to help us solve crimes. A phone call could save the lives of many endangered species," said Li. Endi