KUCHING: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department has opened a total of 23 investigation papers in the country with regard to trafficking of endangered wildlife, involving seizures amounting to RM73.4mil under Ops Bersepadu Khazanah (OBK) this year.
Customs assistant director-general (enforcement) Ribuan Abdullah in a press conference on Thursday (Dec 8) said the cases were being investigated under the Customs Act 1967 and the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008.
“No prosecution is done yet as the cases are still under investigation to identify who is the importer and who is the exporter because majority of the recipients and addresses used had been falsified.
“To date, we only issued RM1,200 compounds to two cases (from 23 cases).”
He also revealed the department had submitted 15 cases to local authorities mainly involving the movement of wildlife without approval from/to Sabah and Sarawak.
Ribuan stated that such cases involved various species of live fauna, including snakes, lizards and turtles.
“Through OBK, our department detected an increase in the entry of endangered wildlife from abroad into Malaysia as well as inter-regional movement in Malaysia from/to Sabah and Sarawak, especially at the airport either through cargo, packages and passengers.
“Such movement involved various types of fauna and flora and their parts, especially turtles, deer skins, ornamental trees and even peacock feathers without permit or approval from the relevant authorities to be used as pets and decorations.”
He pointed out that the department’s efforts in combating such crime did not just involve investigation and prosecution as they also shared information related to indicators or red flags from previous cases to the Customs administration abroad at various international platforms.
When asked on the indicators for wildlife trafficking, he shared that some of them would conduct the crime by sea where foreign fishermen would enter Malaysia and dock at the ports to sell wildlife meat.
Also present at the press conference were deputy Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain and Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim.
