Crackdown on wildlife trade nets ivory haul

Forestry police in Beijing have seized 804.4 kilograms of illegal ivory and other products during a crackdown on illegal wildlife trade, local authorities said yesterday.

Other seizures included 11.3kg of rhinoceros horn and 35 bear paws, police with the local municipal bureau of landscape and forestry said.

The seizure, worth an estimated of 24.39 million yuan (US$3.8 million), was the largest in terms of wildlife products so far.

During the three-month crackdown, lasting from May 21 to August 30, Beijing forestry police traveled to Hebei, Shandong and Guangdong provinces to track down suspects with the help of whistleblowers. Among the 16 suspects caught, 15 were arrested and one was transferred to Shenzhen police in Guangdong.

Investigation shows that the ivory was smuggled from Japan to China’s Hong Kong and entered the mainland through the costal cities of Shenzhen and Weihai.

Illegal wildlife trade has been on the rise in recent years, with the bureau confiscating more than 1,500kg of ivory products worth 50 million yuan since 2013.