Malaysia seizes pangolin scales, ivory worth almost $1m
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Authorities said on Wednesday that officials had foiled two attempts to smuggle elephant ivory tusks and pangolin scales worth nearly $1 million.
Customs senior official Mohamad Pudzi Man said officials raided the Kuala Lumpur airport cargo warehouse on Sunday and found the ivory in two boxes marked as “food stuff.” He said the ivory, worth 275,000 ringgit ($64,000), was flown in on an Etihad Airways flight from Lagos and transited in Abu Dhabi before arriving in Kuala Lumpur.
He said that later on Sunday, officials confiscated six sacks of pangolin scales worth 3.86 million ringgit ($900,000) shortly after it arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Congo. The sacks were marked as “fish maw” and the airway bills used in both cases had fake final destinations, he said.
Mohamad Pudzi said no one was arrested and the case was under investigation for smuggling of prohibited goods.
The seizure marked the latest in a series of contraband wildlife products that have been confiscated by Malaysia in recent months, including more than a ton of pangolin scales in just two months.
The wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC has expressed concern that Malaysia appears to be a transit point for the illegal trade of pangolins and ivory, with traffickers routinely moving their contraband through Malaysia.
Eight species of pangolin, or scaly anteaters, live in Asia and Africa and are targeted for their scales and meat. More than 1 million have been poached in the past decade, threatening the creature with extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Anyone found guilty of importing rare animals or their parts into Malaysia can be jailed for up to three years and fined.