In Thailand’s third pangolin bust of the year, another 111 of the animals have been seized in a major sting on an illegal trading operation.
Nearly a year after being busted, two men in Malaysia have been convicted of illegally possessing pangolins and it seems having an ‘elderly mother’ to take care of may have won them both a more lenient sentencing.
Nepalese police arrested two men found smuggling seven kilograms of pangolin scales in Nepal only days after Palawan officials apprehended three Chinese nationals running an illicit pangolin trade operation out of their ‘junk shop’ front business.
A 32 year-old man has been arrested by Thai Customs officials, after he was found driving a vehicle loaded with 180 pangolins — at least the fourth such bust of 2012 globally.
A Chinese national identified as Yefan Huang has been arrested by authorities in Palawan, Philippines. Huang is believed to be responsible for slaughtering hundreds of pangolins (scaly anteaters) in order to profit from the thriving illegal trade in this species.
A Filipino man identified as Aivon Vencer has been sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to smuggle 1,068 frozen pangolins, weighing 4,988 kilograms.
Thanks to the efforts of the Kenya Wildlife Service, a pangolin has been rescued, and one suspect is under arrest.
Two seizures at Puerto Princesa city airport in southwestern Palawan province this week have reportedly netted 95 kilograms of pangolin scales and 26.5 kilograms of pangolin flesh.
Updated with new information on 6 August, 2012.
The year 2011 saw a minimum of 58 pangolin seizures reported by media and wildlife trade-monitoring networks, TRAFFIC and Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN).
The incidents spanned across more than fourteen different countries in East and Southeast Asia, France, and numerous African nations.
A wild goose chase on the high seas off Sabah, Malaysia and a high speed car chase in Vietnam over the past week have yielded over 1,000 pangolins destined to be consumed as a delicacy or crushed into ‘medicine’.