Interview with wildlife trader Anson Wong of Malaysia

[Guest guest]

*The Star (Malaysia)

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/10/starprobe/4489415 & sec=starp\

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Malaysia is a hub for a multi-billion-ringgit global trade in illegal

wildlife

 

KUALA LUMPUR: A former wildlife smuggler has, in a rare interview,

talked about his arrest for the illegal trafficking of animals following

a sting operation set up by the US authorities.

 

Nicknamed the “Pablo Escobar of the wildlife trade” after the

Colombian drug lord, Penangite Anson Wong Keng Lian was convicted of

trafficking in highly-endangered species by the US government in 2001

after a three-year probe by its Fish and Wildlife Services.

 

He was sentenced to 71 months in jail.

 

Wong’s illicit operations then was part of the worldwide illegal

wildlife trade that Interpol estimated to be worth billions of dollars a

year.

 

The smuggling of wildlife and animal parts is so lucrative that it is

second only to drug trafficking.

Convicted wildlife smuggler Anson Wong, dubbed the ‘Pablo Escobar of

wildlife trafficking’, says he paid for his greed

 

> Interpol estimates that illegal wildlife trade worldwide is

worth US$10bil (RM35bil) to US$20bil (RM70bil) a year.

 

> Consignments of live animals and body parts worth millions of ringgit

have slipped through Malaysia undetected.

 

> Malaysia’s porous borders and unguarded shorelines make the country

an ideal transit point for wildlife smuggling.

 

> Animal traffickers are not deterred by low fines and short jail

terms.

 

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Coming clean

By HILARY CHIEW

 

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/10/starprobe/4082619 & sec=starp\

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GEORGE TOWN: A mix of residential and commercial units flank Jones Road

in downtown Penang. One block of double-storey commercial units contains

an interior design outlet, a furniture gallery and a shoplot that has

its aluminium shutters perennially semi-open.

 

These three enjoined units served as the operations centre of one of

the world’s largest wildlife trafficking syndicates in the 1990s. The

man behind the operation then was Anson Wong Keng Liang, who was

eventually convicted in the United States.

 

Dubbed the “Pablo Escobar of the wildlife trade” and “Asian

wildlife kingpin” by the American authorities, Wong began his foray

into the wildlife trade by exhibiting reptiles at the now-defunct Bukit

Jambul Reptile Sanctuary, a registered company jointly owned by Wong and

his wife.

 

From the early 1990s, Jones Road was the operating address for a host

of companies linked to Wong, among them Sg Rusa Wildlife, CBS Wildlife,

and air cargo operator Aerofleet.

 

Wong was found guilty by the US Government in 2001 for trafficking in

highly endangered species, especially rare reptiles, following a

three-year investigation by the US Fish and Wildife Services into his

international smuggling racket.

 

Codenamed Operation Chameleon, undercover agents infiltrated Wong’s

network which imported and exported more than 300 protected species via

Penang by concealing them in express delivery packages, airline baggage,

and large commercial shipments of legally declared animals.

 

In 1998, the Penangite was lured to Mexico to seal a deal with an agent

who posed as a buyer. He was arrested but fought a US order for his

extradition for two years. He failed in the end and was prosecuted in

the United States alongside seven other business associates and handed a

71-month jail term and fined US$60,000.

 

The cat-and-mouse game of Wong’s operations was detailed in The

Lizard King by Bryan Christy, which renewed public interest in this

otherwise forgotten episode when the book was released last September.

The American lawyer-turned-author was in Kuala Lumpur and Penang early

this year to promote his book.

 

After his release from jail, Wong shunned requests for interviews from

the media. The most viewed image of Wong was a grainy picture released

by the US Department of Justice showing him in a white T-shirt, with

short hair and wearing glasses.

 

Today, Wong is back in Penang where he lives with his wife, and son and

daughter in their 20s, and is operating an air-cargo delivery business

from the same premises in Jones Road.

 

In an interview with Starprobe, Wong spoke about life in US prison and

gave his views on the wildlife trade, and stressed that he has remained

“clean” since his return to Malaysia in 2004.

 

Tell us about the US Fish and Wild-life Services sting.

 

When I saw George Morrison (at the airport in Mexico City) I had this

“game over” feeling. (Morrison was undercover agent “Karl

Hart” who set up the shell company PacRim based in San Francisco.)

The first thing that came to my mind was my son. I could do 100 years in

prison. We adults have to pay for what we did but it’s the hurt ... I

couldn’t bring myself to call home, I was ashamed.

 

Then a Malaysian Embassy official informed me that it was all over the

papers and I should make that call. He gave me a 100 peso call card. By

the time my son got to the phone, the line was disconnected. That really

hurt.

 

You have been labelled the Pablo Escobar (Colombian drug lord) of

wildlife trafficking.

 

The reports painted me as a monster. I’m no Pablo Escobar. Do you

know what he was like? I’m just like any other guy; I just got a bit

greedy.

 

How did you earn your parole?

 

I told them what they wanted to hear. They bought my story – hook,

line and sinker. I was not obliged to tell them the truth. In this

business, you can’t reveal your network. You’d be done in if you

did.

 

Do you have any connection to the proposed tiger park initiated by the

Penang Government?

 

I’m not involved. Whatever the public and NGOs said is not true. They

are just speculating. I wish they will spend their resources on more

blatant trafficking cases out there than paying attention to me. But

sure, that operation will likely serve as a tiger farm.

 

You’re saying that you’re absolutely clean now?

 

I don’t want to go to jail again. I had difficulties sleeping in the

cell. I saw gang fights, rape. Do you think I want to live through that

again?

 

So what were you doing in Tan-zania? (At the beginning of this

interview, Wong showed a photograph dated Nov 2008 of a ploughshare

tortoise in his hand. He expressed concern that the highly-priced

Madagascar tortoise is targetted by Chinese traffickers for its meat.)

 

Oh ... just visiting. There’s this famous place in Zanzibar ...

it’s just not right to eat this tortoise.

 

What about allegations that you are protected by a high-ranking officer

in Perhilitan (Department of Wildlife and National Park)?

 

That’s rubbish. I said it before and I will say it again, (that

officer) is the most diligent wildlife officer I have dealt with.

 

There is talk that you benefitted from auctions of confiscated

shipments due to this connection with the officer.

 

There’s no truth in it. There was one (confiscated) shipment of

monitor lizards and I pleaded with (the officer to let me have it) but

the officer declined and sent them all to the Malacca Zoo. Anyway, these

auction stories are ancient.

 

What do you think of the book The Lizard King?

 

He (Bryan Christy) wrote it as though he had spoken with me at length.

In reality, he only met me for less than 15 minutes at my office. I did

offer him a lift but he declined.

 

There was suspicion you were the intended recipient of a ploughshare

and radiated tortoise consignment in October 2007 that was intercepted

by Customs at the KLIA, as well as the Indian star tortoises seized in

the last few years.

 

That’s interesting. I’m really intrigued by whoever is using my

name. I’m curious how they managed to smuggle so many tortoises.

 

If you’re not involved, why would your name surface?

 

I think my name carries weight. They know that I keep my word. I

don’t blame these people. They always link (trafficking) to me.

I’m used to it now. Whatever I say could be used against me.

 

How many special permits (to keep totally protected species under the

Wildlife Protect-ion Act 1972) do you hold?

 

My staff will know. I don’t handle it myself.

 

Do you feel any guilt that your activities (in the past) had

contributed to extinction of endangered species?

 

I tend to look at it differently. Everyone is contributing to species

extinction. If you sit in an air-conditioned restaurant like now ...

(you are contributing to global warming and in turn species extinction).

With deforestation, habitats are lost and species go extinct. Endangered

is relative. I still trade in wildlife – legally – and that’s the

only thing I do. But the quantity is not there anymore nor are there any

(big) buyers.

 

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Illegal animal trading puts Malaysia on the world map for all the wrong

reasons

By HILARY CHIEW

 

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/10/starprobe/4369565 & sec=starp\

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KUALA LUMPUR: In 2006, Taiwanese authorities seized a three-tonne

shipment of ivory from Tanzania worth RM25mil that had transited Penang

port.

 

An Indian national who was caught with an illegal consignment of Indian

star tortoises at the KL International Airport in 2007 said he was paid

to bring it into the country for a Malaysian buyer.

 

In the second half of 2008, 167 pangolins were seized in four

enforcement cases in Muar, indicating that the coastline was a thriving

entry point for the anteaters from Indonesia. It is believed that the

pangolins were destined for the restaurant and traditional medicine

trade, as well as the mainland Chinese market.

 

Early this year, genetic fingerprinting of seized tiger parts in

southern Thailand shows that the Malaya tiger, endemic to Malaysia and

numbering only 500 in the wild, have been blatantly poached and smuggled

through our land borders.

 

These are some of the cases that point to illegal trafficking of

wildlife and its parts, and to Malaysia being a transit point, a source

country, as well as a consumer hub for endangered wildlife.

 

Globally, Interpol estimated the illegal trade to be worth US$10bil

(RM35bil) to US$20bil (RM70bil) a year. Conservation groups like the

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have declared wildlife trade the second

biggest direct threat to species survival, after habitat destruction.

 

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) did not

respond to requests for the value of animals confiscated last year, but

a conservative estimate based on media reports shows that at least

RM5mil worth of wildlife was seized in Malaysia last year.

 

Wildlife trafficking is a trade so lucrative that it is said to rank

second after drug trafficking, especially when there is no death penalty

to fear in most countries.

 

Take the pangolin, for instance. According to wildlife trade

researchers the creature’s scales and meat are sought after for its

purported properties to alleviate rheumatic pains. And as an aphrodisiac

too of course, as any purveyor of exotic meat would sell you the idea.

That is why pangolins can fetch as much as RM150 per kg or RM500 per

animal in the black market.

 

Traffic, a wildlife trade-monitoring network, fears that the illegal

trade in pangolins is already out of control with large shipments of

animals being smuggled across numerous international borders, often by

the lorry load, to their final destination in China.

 

It says that shipments busted by Perhilitan are merely the tip of the

proverbial iceberg. What slips through the net are far more than one can

estimate, in the millions of ringgit over the years.

 

The rampant smuggling of pangolins has forced Perhilitan to acknowledge

that Malaysia has become both an attractive supply and transit country.

 

Its deputy enforcement director Celescoriano Razond said he feared that

international syndicates had turned the country into their main source

– not just for pangolin but other wildlife species too.

 

There have been numerous confiscations of Indian star tortoises at the

KLIA with arrests of Indian and Malaysian nationals, yet the smugglers

are undeterred. The shipments still come in and the authorities have no

other choice but to maintain constant vigilance.

 

Until recently, the Indian star tortoise from the Indian sub-continent

that was banned from export was easily available in local pet shops. The

palm-sized exotic pet with star-like markings on its shell was sold at

between RM100 and RM150 per creature.

 

In cases where the illegal shipments of Indian star tortoises were

foiled, the authorities have found suitcases packed with the animal,

some up to 2,000 pieces in one suitcase.

 

Perhilitan returns seized consignments to the country of origin but the

syndicates involved remain at large.

 

Existing laws and inadequate manpower remain the biggest setbacks in

tackling this scourge. The Wildlife Protection Act 1972 offers no

protection for any turtle or tortoise species. A revised law, scheduled

to be tabled in Parliament this year, is supposed to plug this

particular loophole. However, a check on the draft bill showed that this

reptile family is still being left out.

 

Azrina Abdullah, the immediate ex-director of Traffic, lamented the low

fines and reluctance of the courts to put the culprits behind bars. In

2006, conservationists were appalled that a RM7,000 fine (maximum fine

is RM15,000) was slapped on a poacher from Tumpat, in Kelantan, for

possessing a chopped up tiger in his fridge, instead of the maximum

five-year imprisonment. The black market value of a tiger is reported to

be US$50,000 (RM180,000).

 

Currently, fines range from RM1,000 to RM15,000 and imprisonment from a

minimum of one year to 10 years. The authorities have indicated a 100%

increase in fines and a maximum jail term of 12 years in the pending new

law.

 

Among the issues that need to be addressed is the issuance of special

permits by Perhilitan to theme parks, private zoos and individuals for

keeping an animal. There is fear that permits given would provide the

holders a cover to launder illegal specimens.

 

At the regional level, a lack of law enforcement and poor investigation

are obstacles to efforts in stemming this exploitation of biodiversity

of a country and its neighbours.

 

Recognising that no country can fight this scourge on its own,

governments in the region formed in 2005 a regional anti-wildlife

trafficking network aimed at sharing intelligence and improving regional

enforcement collaboration.

 

The 10-member Asean – Wildlife Enforce-ment Network (Asean-WEN) is

the world’s largest entity of its kind. Despite the heightened

awareness among law enforcers and seemingly higher number of seizures,

it remains unclear if the network has managed to cripple the syndicates

or apprehend the masterminds behind this hideous crime against nature.*