Illegal wildlife traders caught in international net

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.de/illegal-wildlife-traders-caught-in-international-net/a-18526924

A global effort to tackle illegal wildlife trading has resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of tons of plants and animals - dead and alive. Conservationists welcome the news as a step in the right direction.

Illegal wildlife traders caught in international net
Tamsin Walker
19.06.2015

The list of wildlife contraband uncovered by Operation COBRA III - the name of the largest-ever coordinated international law enforcement effort to target the illegal trade in endangered species - makes for macabre reading.

It features 10,000 dead seahorses, and 400 living turtles and tortoises found in the UK; 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of live leeches in Bulgaria; 50 kilograms of animal parts (including heads and horns) in Spain; and more than 500 kilograms of frozen eels in Poland. And it doesn't stop there.

The operation, conducted in two phases between mid-March and the end of May this year, saw the participation of law enforcement teams and agencies from 62 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. It led to seizure of almost 249 kilograms of pangolin scales, 10 kilograms of hornbill beak and more than 12 tons of ivory.

Ivory shipping was officially outlawed in 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), but elephants are one of the major victims of the increasingly organized nature of the illegal wildlife trade.