(INDONESIA) Malaysian held in smuggling bust

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Rare species trade persists in Sumatra

 

Source: The Jakarta Post - August 2, 2008

By Khairul Saleh , Palembang

 

The government should mete out the stiffest punishment against anyone

involved in the trade of protected wildlife to deter recurrences of the

crime, said a conservationist Friday. On July 30, the police busted a

wildlife trading syndicate involved in a large-scale export of anteaters.

 

" They have clearly violated the law on the protection of rare wildlife

species. Whoever is involved, be they traders on the local level, middlemen,

exporters and officials related to the protection and trade of wildlife,

should be harshly punished to prevent the same thing from happening, " said

South Sumatra chapter Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) head Sri

Lestari in Palembang on Friday.

 

The discovery of large volumes of protected wildlife for export, Lestari

said, showed the extent of wildlife trade dealings in Palembang, which have

occurred for a long time. The recent crackdown on the illegal trade

illustrated how lax government supervision was on the protection of rare

species, she added.

 

" The current extent of the trade is likely due to backings from corrupt

officials, " Lestari said.

 

The anteater (manis javanica) is a protected mammal species in Indonesia and

is regulated under the 1990 law on the protection of rare wildlife species,

which stipulates that it is prohibited to kill, hurt, hunt, keep or trade in

live or dead anteaters, including their parts.

 

" Violators face a maximum five years' imprisonment and Rp 100 million

(US$11,000) in fines, " Lestari said. Police on July 30 seized 8.25 tons of

frozen anteater meat, 200 tons of dried anteater skin, including 85 anteater

gall bladders, all ready for export, from an anteater processing facility in

Alang-Alang Lebar, Palembang.

 

The state is estimated to have incurred a loss into the tens of billions.

Based on a press release from the police, the price of anteater meat on the

local market can fetch up to Rp 250,000 per kilogram. Police have detained

11 suspects, one of them a Malaysian named E Kong Seng, alias Aseng, 29.

According to the police, the detainees will be taken to the National Police

headquarters in Jakarta soon.

 

Aseng admitted to running the business by using a tourist visa. He came to

Palembang every two months and returned to Malaysia to extend his visa only

to return to Palembang again, doing so repeatedly. Aseng admitted the

illegal trade involved various parties. He confessed to have bribed officers

at the airport, port, Natural Resources Conservation Center, and

high-ranking police and military officials.

 

" I got my supply of anteaters from petty traders who come to the factory. We

sorted them according to customers' orders. Some ordered live anteaters, but

most orders were for the skin, " Aseng said. He said the meat was used for

consumption and as a raw material in traditional drugs, while the leather

was used to make bags, wallets and home accessories.

 

The National Police received information from the Singaporean police after

they found out that the anteater skin originated from Indonesia. Based on

investigations, there are at least three anteater processing centers in the

country, namely Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Sumatra.

 

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Thursday August 7, 2008 The Star Malaysian held in biggest Indonesian

smuggling bust By EDDIE CHUA

 

GEORGE TOWN: A Malaysian, believed to be the mastermind of an illegal

wildlife trade, was among 14 people arrested by Indonesian police in the

country's biggest smuggling bust in Palembang, Sumatra.

 

In the raid on Wednesday, Indonesian police also seized 14 tonnes of

endangered pangolin meat – all frozen packed and ready for export – from a

warehouse in the southern Sumatra city.

 

The seized meat was valued at RM1.4mil.

 

A source told *The Star* that the suspect was known to be involved in

smuggling reptiles from Indonesia to other parts of the world apart from

supplying pangolin meat to China.

 

It is believed that the suspect is a partner in the company that specialises

in exporting pangolin meat and other reptiles.

 

The source said the busted syndicate had been in operation for more than two

years and was one of the biggest illegal trade operators in Indonesia.

 

Wildlife trade-monitoring organisation Traffic South-East Asia's senior

programme officer Chris Shepherd said they were trying to ascertain how the

syndicate had operated and the route used to smuggle the contraband.

 

Malaysia is a favourite transit point among Indonesian syndicates smuggling

endangered animals such as pangolins, snakes and tortoises to China.

 

Most of the animals were either shipped here alive or frozen before the

contraband is smuggled by road into Thailand before ending up in cooking

pots in China.

 

Shepherd said the raid, the largest ever in Indonesia, was linked to two

other seizures in Vietnam earlier this year involving more than 23 tonnes of

frozen pangolins.

 

Indonesian CID chief Commissioner Didid Widjanardi, who led the operation,

said they busted the warehouse after they traced the frozen pangolins

shipped from Sumatra and Java ports in an earlier raid in Vietnam.