Malaysian police seize record US$2 million pangolin haul from two factories in Sabah
- Police seized 1,800 boxes filled with frozen pangolins, 572 frozen pangolins in separate freezers, 61 live pangolins and 361kg of pangolin scales from two processing facilities in Sabah
- A suspect, believed to be a factory manager, has been arrested
The monitoring network TRAFFIC said in a statement that Sabah police this month uncovered two major pangolin processing facilities, throwing a spotlight on the state’s role in the sourcing and trafficking of the endangered mammal.
Sabah police said over the weekend they had seized three refrigerated containers containing 1,800 boxes filled with frozen pangolins, another 572 frozen pangolins in separate freezers, 61 live pangolins and 361kg of pangolin scales. Two bear paws and carcasses of four flying fox were also recovered.
A 35-year-old Malaysian man, believed to be a factory manager, has been detained.
The scales are made of keratin, the same material in human fingernails. Their meat is also considered a delicacy in China and other Asian countries.
Sabah police chief Omar Mammah said initial investigations showed the facility has operated for seven years, and that the suspect had bought the pangolins from local illegal hunters for distribution locally and to the neighbouring state of Sarawak. He estimated the haul to be worth at least 8.4 million ringgit (US$2 million).
TRAFFIC said the whole pangolin bodies found frozen and boxed were likely to have been sold for meat consumption. “Including this bust, Sabah has been implicated in over 40 tons of pangolin smuggling since August 2017, including 13 tons of African pangolin scales.”
The seizures came a decade after Sabah authorities discovered logbooks in 2009 kept by another pangolin trafficking ring, said the wildlife group.
It said the logbooks revealed that about 22,200 pangolins were killed and 834.4kg of pangolin scales sourced throughout the state and supplied to the syndicate over 13 months.
Malaysia torches 2.8 tonnes of seized pangolin scales in a bid to thwart smugglers of the endangered animal
There were occasional seizures of live and processed pangolins since then. But a massive seizure of African pangolin scale shipments in 2017 at a Sabah port and at the Kuala Lumpur International airport originating from Sabah has since highlighted Sabah’s emerging role as a transit point in the global trafficking of pangolin scales from Africa to Asia, TRAFFIC said.
The latest “seizure and the 2009 discovery confirm that Borneo is still an important source of pangolins for the illegal trade”, TRAFFIC communications officer Elizabeth John told AP.
