RM100 mln pangolin scales
KOTA KINABALU: The Customs Department has seized RM100 million worth of pangolin scales that were bound for China.
State Customs Department director Datuk Dr Janathan Kandok said the seizure was made at the Sepanggar Bay Container Port on July 29.
Janathan said the pangolin scales, weighing about 8,000kg, were packed together with sea shells in 226 sacks and kept in two 40-foot shipping containers declared as sea shells.
“We have also arrested a 43year-old local man, believed to be the company's owner from Kota Kinabalu.
“We will investigate him under Section 135(1)(a) of the Customs Act 1967 for exporting prohibited goods which carries a fine of between 10 and 20 times the goods value, or up to three years imprisonment or both,” he told a press conference at the Customs Department headquarters here yesterday.
Janathan said Customs enforcement team had been monitoring the company’s activities before they made the raid at 9.20am on July 29.
“Investigation also estimated the pangolin scales to come from 16,000 pangolins and smuggled into the state for export.”
Janathan added that the case was one of the biggest involving protected animals after the seizure of 1,068 frozen pangolins weighing some five tonnes in Sandakan on December 7, 2011.
The trade of pangolins was banned under Appendix 1 of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), said Janathan.