Hong Kong Customs seized HK$130 million worth of smuggled goods including narcotics, cigarettes, ivory, shark fins, and frozen meat during Lunar New Year raids During the 27-day operation, Hong Kong Customs seized HK$130 million, equivalent to US$16.7 million worth of goods in a successful attempt to crack down on cross-boundary smuggling taking place around the Chinese New Year. The operation started on January 14 and ended on February 9, with 1,300 smuggling cases detected and 1,203 people arrested.
Among the huge variety of smuggled items, pangolin scales, ivory tusks and related products, red sandalwood logs, orchids and shark fins, totalling an estimated value of about HK$73 million, accounted for 146 cases. Apart from confiscating wildlife items, 61 drug smuggling cases were detected with the seizure of approximately 130kg of suspected illegal drugs fetching up to HK$22 million.
Customs officers also found 220kg of game, meat and poultry and around 600 eggs that could have been transferred into Hong Kong without proper certificates. These cases would be handled by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for further actions.
Hong Kong Customs has indeed done an excellent job. Some may argue that the items could still be sold on the market as long as the wildlife have already been killed. Is this tenable? Of course no. Once the market demand is fulfilled, the consumers will crave for more, resulting in more precious wildlife being killed. Another observation is the sheer monetary gains from wildlife trade. The confiscated wildlife-related items worth more than double than the uncovered drugs. Have the global syndicates shifted their criminal business from trafficking drugs to wildlife products? If this is so, wildlife protection efforts should be heightened.
