Huge haul of pangolin scales in Malaysia
Print Edition
MALAYSIA has seized more than US$2 million worth of scales from pangolins, the world’s most poached animal, at Kuala Lumpur airport in the largest haul seen in the country, officials said yesterday.
Officials acting on a tip-off discovered 712 kilograms of scales at the airport’s cargo warehouse, where they had been shipped in 18 sacks using false documents, Customs Department assistant director-general Paddy Abdul Halim said.
Wildlife and National Parks Department deputy director of enforcement Rozidan Mohamed Yasin said about 1,400 pangolins had been killed to produce the amount of scales seized.
Malaysia has previously been singled out by conservationists as a transit point for the illegal trafficking of endangered species to other Asian countries.
Shy and near-sighted, pangolins only venture out from the safety of their burrows or tree-top homes at night to scour for insects. When startled, they curl up into a ball — a technique that is futile against the cable snares set by hunters. All eight of the world’s species of pangolin are threatened with extinction.
The scales were shipped from Africa in two separate shipments, Paddy said. The first shipment from Accra, Ghana, had been sent to Malaysia via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on an Emirates Airlines flight.
The second was sent from Kinshaha, Congo, on Kenya Airways to Nairobi, Kenya, where it was then transferred to an Emirates Airlines flight and shipped to Malaysia via Dubai.
No suspects had been detained and it was still unclear whether Malaysia was the final destination for the scales as no recipients could be traced.
Pangolin scales shipped to Malaysia are usually sent on to Vietnam and China.
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