Indonesian authorities have charged one person and are pursuing at least two others, including a Vietnamese national, after customs officials seized 3 metric tons of pangolin scales worth an estimated $10 million at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port in February.The goods — one of Indonesia’s largest known wildlife trafficking seizures — were concealed in a shipping container bound for Cambodia and likely comprised around 15,000 dead pangolins, all eight species of which are threatened with extinction.Indonesia’s forestry ministry said investigators are continuing to look into the involvement of two companies involved in arranging the customs clearance and export.Wildlife conservation nonprofit Geopix said the case should remain open until investigators have established the actors behind the shipment, widely suspected to be the work of a transnational organized trafficking ring.
JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities have charged one person and are pursuing at least two others in connection with one of the country’s largest wildlife trafficking cases, following the seizure of around $10 million worth of pangolin scales earlier this year.
On Feb. 18, customs inspectors found 3,053 kilograms (6,731 pounds) of pangolin scales hidden in a shipping container at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port, bound for Cambodia. The goods were declared as sea cucumbers in customs clearance documents.
