Chinese customs officers recently announced that 11.9 tons of smuggled¹ pangolin scales had been confiscated².

 

中国海关近期宣布查获重达11.9吨的穿山甲鳞片。
 

 

Meanwhile, two suspects, surnamed Li and He, who used fake names to register their packages for import, have been arrested.

 

The huge amount of pangolin scales were found on a ship which was registered as empty but was instead found to be loaded with charcoal³ at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, city of south China’s Guangdong Province on July 1.

 

Shenzhen customs officers inspect bags of pangolin scales. /CNS Photo

 

Li Ping, a Shenzhen customs official, said 239 bags of suspected pangolin scales were hidden in a container. Animal experts believed that 2,000 to 3,000 pangolins had been slaughtered⁴ in order to amass⁵ that many scales.

 

The South China Wildlife Identification Center later confirmed that the scales were from endangered pangolins banned from international trade. At current market price, the seized pangolin scales were worth 200 million RMB (approximately 30 million US dollars), according to officials.

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