ALERT: Pangolin scale trade “ban” undermined in China; laundering of scales into legal markets likely to continue.
According to NGOs, more than 1,000 companies, hospitals, and other entities are involved in the sale of medicines containing pangolin scales, supplied in part by transnational wildlife trafficking networks.
ALERT: Complex global wildlife supply chains expanding to meet high demand for turtles and tortoises in China.
Criminal networks smuggle tens of thousands of wild-caught turtles and tortoises each year to supply pet, food, and decorative products markets, threatening populations of at-risk and critically endangered species.
ALERT: Eel trafficking from Europe to Asia worth up to $3 billion; converges with drug trafficking, money laundering.
The latest iteration of Operation Lake, coordinated across law enforcement in Europe, resulted in the arrest of 108 glass eel traffickers, seizures of 2,013kg of eels worth more than $7.4 mln.
