Endangered Species Haul in China:
Date: 07/08/99 Author: Guo Nei Copyright by China Daily Customs authorities in Southwest China's Yunnan Province have uncovered a massive case of smuggling skins or parts of endangered species of wild animals.
It was the biggest haul since 1949, investigating authorities confirmed. What surprised the anti-smuggling inspectors most was not only the large amount of contraband they found but the unconventional way used to smuggle the commodities, according to China Central Television Station (CCTV). All of the deals made between smugglers and buyers were sent through the mail, particularly surface mail. This was to escape checking by the police and customs' network to combat cross-border smuggling, police said. 
The case and suspects involved are now under further investigation by authorities, CCTV said.
In Yunnan Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region alone, two smugglers were found to have sent more than 5,000 hides of wild animals, a local postmaster said, indicating that hundreds of people were engaged in the illegal business there. 
During recent routine checks in Yunnan's Ruili Customs, many sacks of mail bags weighing about 470 kilograms of skins taken from cobra and pallas pit vipers caught the eye of customs inspectors. 
The inspectors trailed the clues on the bags to a house of one of the suspects who was about to pick up the goods. The anti-smuggling inspectors seized 575 python skins, four tiger furs and numerous leopard hides, bear skins and gaur hides, as well as a large number of monkey craniums and elephant tusks. 
It was amazing to find such a large number of hides and parts of wild animals piled up in a house of less than 70 square metres, waiting to be sent out through the mails.
It was also the first time for smugglers to have been foiled in such a large quantity of products made from poached wild animals, with some endangered species under the State's top protection, authorities said.
China has intensified its crackdown on all illegal trading of endangered species of wild fauna since 1981 with its official participation in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But, poaching and trading of wild animals have not been controlled completely today. Driven by huge profits, unlawful traders have colluded with overseas businessmen, officials of the State Forest Administration conceded.

Date: 17/03/00
Author: Clifford Lo
Copyright by South China Morning Post
Customs officers at Fanling have seized more than two tonnes of pangolin skin, believed to have come from about 3,900 of the endangered scaly ant-eater. They also found a bag of dried skin of green sea turtle - an endangered species - when the owner of a trading company arrived in a container yard in Ping Che, Fanling, to collect the goods on Wednesday afternoon. The consignment was hidden under about 800 bags of seaweed in two containers that arrived from Indonesia last week, said Chu Man-bun of the Customs and Excise Department. "The consignment is worth about $1.6 million on the retail market and it is our largest seizure of pangolin scales. We believe that it is destined for Shenzhen," Mr Chu said. "The animal parts are for use as Chinese medicine." Under the Animals and Plants (Protection of Endangered Species) Ordinance, the maximum penalty is a $5 million fine and two years' jail. The 46-year-old owner of the trading company was arrested and released on $10,000 bail.

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