(Rhino horn, ivory and other items seized by the customs department.) Photo: Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau)
A transnational chain of rhino horn smuggling
Reporter/Xu Dawei
Published in China News Weekly, No. 1004 on July 19, 2021
A fishing boat travels in the waters bordering Fujian and Guangdong. In the vast sea, this fishing boat with a length of only more than 70 meters is like a leaf of duckweed in the wind and waves. However, this seemingly ordinary fishing boat is not ordinary at all, and it is full of rhino horns from Africa, not fish. On the evening of June 17, 2019, the anti-smuggling department of China Customs had gathered heavy troops in the sea area and was waiting for the fishing boat with a net.
On May 21 this year, Xiamen Customs informed the public of the cracked case of smuggling of extraordinarily large rhino horn, and seized 145 pieces of rhino horn at the scene, with a total weight of 250 kilograms and a value of about 100 million yuan. The case also set a new record for the number of smuggled rhino horns cracked by Chinese customs in recent years. A relevant person from the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau told China News Weekly that of the 145 pieces of rhino horn seized, 110 whole horns were completely removed directly from the rhinos, and the remaining 35 pieces could be confirmed to be cut from different rhino horns according to their size and appearance, so it was judged that about 100 rhinos were killed.
Rhino horn smuggling is as lucrative as heroin, and to curb the poaching frenzy, the first convention banning international trade in rhino horn was implemented in 1975. Currently, all five remaining species of rhinos in the world are listed in Appendix I of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which prohibits international trade. As Asian countries such as China continue to crack down on rhino horn smuggling, smuggling rhino horn is becoming increasingly difficult.
Smuggling rhino horn is now a "black business". From poaching and supply at the source to the end consumer, the involvement of organized smuggling rings further combines the supply of rhino horn from the source with the market demand in the consuming country, making the illegal smuggling trade in rhino horn more hidden and complex. This horrific case of rhino horn smuggling also unveiled the tip of the iceberg of the black smuggling trade chain of transcontinental rhino horn.
Sniper Sea "Ghost Ship"
On January 28, 2019, on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year, an intelligence tip caught the attention of the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau. According to the clues, Wang Yongming, a native of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, organized a source of rhino horn and ivory in South Africa, and planned to smuggle them into the country through sea and air transport channels, which may be shipped to the domestic coastal areas through ocean-going ships in the near future.
There are many coastal ports in Fujian, and the carving industry in some areas is developed, which is conducive to the secondary processing and distribution of rhino horn and ivory. The Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau made an intelligence judgment that "smuggled rhino horn is likely to land in Fujian waters." At this time, Wang Yongming had returned from Mozambique, and intelligence information showed that he was going to Fujian to "pick up the goods", and the police investigation of the gang was immediately launched.
China and Africa are thousands of miles apart, and it is difficult for ordinary ships to be competent for ocean shipping. "The original intelligence information is very vague." Bao Qi, deputy director of the Intelligence Department of the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau, told China News Weekly that the research at that time was most likely to be smuggled and transported by distant-water fishing vessels. The customs anti-smuggling police began to check the distant-water fishing vessels one by one, however, until after the Spring Festival, there was still no harvest, which made Bao Qi, who led the intelligence verification, wonder. "Intelligence is early warning information, and the real situation is likely to be 'separation of people and goods.'" Bao Qi said.
On February 9, Wang Yongming arrived in Xiamen, Fujian Province. The anti-smuggling police officer in charge of the external investigation received news that Someone had informed Wang Yongming that the "goods" were backlogged in a dock in Fujian and that "the goods may not be able to be picked up in the near future." In the early morning of February 11, Wang Yongming's account suddenly generated a large amount of capital transactions, which indicated that the transaction had been completed, but the number and location of the transaction could not be known. Further investigation by the police found that once the rhino horn entered the circulation market, it changed hands quickly. "It's actually a segmented delivery, and different shippers give different goods." Bao Qi explained that this brings no small challenge to tracking down the flow of smuggled rhino horn. Like hunters, the anti-smuggling police wait for the target's second transaction.
After a period of dormancy, the signal appeared - Wang Yongming sent "Ma Zai" to set off again. On March 5, the smuggling ship left the coast of Zhejiang for Mozambique. The 1,600-ton target vessel " Maritime Pioneer " entered the field of police investigation. The registered nationality of the Sea Pioneer was changed to the Central American country of Belize, and the crew was mainly Burmese, and the purpose of this "operation" was to circumvent inspection and criminal penalties.
(On the evening of June 17, 2019, the anti-smuggling department of China Customs seized the "Maritime Pioneer".) Photo: Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau)
A thousand-ton ship sails on the ocean, and the customs anti-smuggling department wants to track the smuggling ship, which is tantamount to "finding a needle in a haystack". After setting sail from the port of Mozambique on May 15, the smuggling vessel shut down the ship's AIS positioning system, kept communications silent, and became a "ghost ship" at sea, which made it difficult to detect and track. "You don't know where the ship went in the vast sea, and we can only judge based on the limited information we have." Bao Qi told China News Weekly that with the sporadic information of ships passing through the monitoring area, through big data analysis, the anti-smuggling police were able to find out the route, direction, speed and expected stop point of the smuggled ship.
In mid-June, according to shipping route calculations, smuggling ships sailed from the Strait of Malacca into the South China Sea, and the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau, together with the Guangdong and Fujian Coast Guard Bureaus, laid five "pockets" in the Nansha Islands, the Xisha Islands, the Fujian-Guangdong Border, the Xiamen-Zhanghai Sea, and the Wenzhou Sea.
At about 14:00 on the afternoon of June 17, the signal of the vessel appeared in the waters bordering Fujian and Guangdong, which meant that the arrest time left for the anti-smuggling police was less than 12 hours, and once the time passed, the smuggling ship was very likely to escape and sail into the Taiwan Strait to evade the seizure. Zeng Xuefeng, deputy chief of the anti-smuggling section of the Dongdu Branch of the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau, who has many years of anti-smuggling experience, told China News Weekly that some large smuggling ships are often parked on the high seas outside the anti-smuggling law enforcement area of China Customs, and then use small boats to "pick up goods" and wait for opportunities to be transported into Chinese mainland.
The location of the arrest was finally determined in the Fujian-Guangdong sea. That night, 120 anti-smuggling policemen, 288 officers and men of coastal police, 8 ships, and 18 action groups were distributed in the waters bordering Fujian and Guangdong, as well as in Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Wenzhou, Dalian, and other places.
"Opposite the boat, parked for inspection! repeat! Stop the boat for inspection! When the anti-smuggling police jumped on the smuggling ship that swayed in the wind and waves, Liu Hequn, a member of the smuggling gang responsible for escorting the transport, also "confidently" believed that this was just a routine inspection, and the crew did not even "ventilate" to the smuggling leader hiding behind the scenes. Thousands of miles away in Xiamen, the Customs Operations Command is nervously awaiting the results of the investigation. After a search, the anti-smuggling police found that this was almost an empty ship, only 4 containers were empty, and the kitchen, cockpit, crew rest cabin, etc. were also found, which made the police involved in the anti-smuggling operation at the scene a little suspenseful. At this time, on the other end of the phone, Bao Qi, deputy director of the Intelligence Department of the Anti-Smuggling Bureau of Xiamen Customs, said very firmly, "Rest assured, there must be goods on board." After repeated searches, the police finally found 14 black nylon duffel bags in the sub-fuel compartment of the ship's cabin, all filled with rhino horns of different lengths, which were counted in total 145 pieces and weighed a total of 250 kilograms.
Good news came from the sea, and another large net on land began to close. Wang Yongming, who was under the remote control command in Wenzhou, and 5 other suspects were arrested at the same time, and more than 30 pieces of ivory, leopard skin, ivory necklace and other products were seized.
Smuggling routes at any cost
The rhino horn smuggling transport of Wang Yongming's gang took three and a half months, passing through Madagascar, Maldives, and the Strait of Malacca along the way, and then using small offshore ships to connect near the Taiwan Strait, waiting for the opportunity to smuggle in from non-customs areas along China's coast. In the entire smuggling route, there is no transit place, no other goods are transported, and the total round-trip mileage exceeds 20,000 nautical miles, and the cost of smuggling alone reaches millions of yuan. In addition, the tonnage of normal ocean-going ships is generally more than 10,000 tons, while the cargo ship purchased by the smuggling gang is only 1600 tons, the ship condition is poor, the resistance to wind and waves is also poor, and it is very easy to overturn in bad weather. Behind such an adventure is the windfall profiteering of rhino horn smuggling.
The black market price of rhino horn in Asia is about $60,000 (about 400,000 yuan) per kilogram. Zeng Xuefeng told China News Weekly that rhino horn was smuggled and smuggled into China, and after layers of price increases to the hands of terminal buyers, the price could be more than ten times higher than the initial "receipt price". An assessment by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that the largest value-added link in the illicit trade in ivory and rhino horn is the final retail link. In Asia alone, for example, in the Asian wholesaler-to-retailer segment, rhino horn prices rose 103 percent, and ivory prices soared 529 percent. A number of anti-smuggling police told reporters that the huge profit margin makes the rhino horn smuggling gang extremely cautious and has a strong anti-investigation ability. "Real smuggling is far more complicated than the plot of a film and television drama." Bao Qi introduced that rhino horn is expensive, and the smuggling gangs invest "real money and silver", and the smuggling route is carefully planned and thoughtful.
"In general, smuggling does not have such a planned route." Bao Qi told China News Weekly that smuggling gangs usually use container ships to illegally smuggle ivory and rhino horn through freight channels by hiding fake newspaper names. "It's rare to smuggle across continents on small pelagic fishing boats." Bao Qi said.
Huang Hongxiang, the founder of Zhongnanwu and a former undercover investigation into international rhino horn smuggling, told China News Weekly that the rhino horn smuggling route is mainly africa-Southeast Asia-Asia terminal markets. Huang Hongxiang's field investigation in Vietnam found that many rhino horn smugglers often choose to "transit" in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam, because of the relaxed local law enforcement environment and easy access to end buyers.
According to the relevant analysis of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), rhino horn smuggled into China in recent years has mainly come from South Africa and Vietnam, and both routes have shown a clear trend of organized crime. As China's customs crack down on smuggling of endangered species, criminal gangs on both routes have generally used the method of hiring watermen or cargo protection gangs to reduce their own risks. Ma Chenyue, a senior project official at IFAW, told China News Weekly that rhino horns from Vietnam are mainly smuggled from Africa to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam by criminal gangs, and then hoarded at the borders of China and Vietnam, China and Laos for smuggling into the country. The main methods of smuggling into the country chosen by criminal gangs are to hire border people to enter the country through the travel inspection channel at the port, and to hire cargo protection gangs to smuggle them into the country through non-customs clearances. In recent years, cross-border parcel delivery and smuggling has also had a high incidence trend.
As an emerging market for rhino horn consumption, Vietnam has become one of the most important transit countries for smuggling rhino horn to China in addition to its own needs. According to a 2016 undercover interview by EAL (Elephant Action Alliance), Chinese traders said Vietnam was their main source of rhino horn, and sellers in Vietnam confirmed this, saying 80 percent of buyers were Chinese. From August 2016 to June 2017, the EAL conducted an 11-month investigation into illegal rhino horn smuggling at the Chinese border. EAL investigators learned that smugglers had four to five different land routes into and out of a Chinese border city. The shortest distance is only a three minute walk.
Rhino horn from South Africa is mainly hired by criminal gangs to carry goods, using airport passenger entry and exit channels, in the form of "ant moving" rhino horn hidden in luggage smuggled into the country, criminal gangs often choose to transfer through Hong Kong, Doha and Ho Chi Minh City and other places to connect international flights. Li Lishu, director of the China program at the Beijing representative office of the International Society for Wildlife Conservation (WCS), reminded that the focus should be on the way air smuggling into the country. Li Lishu told China News Weekly that rhino horn is more valuable and easier to transport than ivory, usually smuggled through air luggage. After transporting rhino horn from Africa, smugglers will transit through airports in North Africa, Asia and other places, and Hong Kong is an important "gateway". Judging from some cases of air smuggling of rhino horn cracked by customs in various countries, some smugglers will collude with airport staff to avoid scanning inspections at customs entry.
Another phenomenon worth paying attention to is the increasingly updated sales channels. "Rhino horn is no longer sold in stores as it used to be." Yu Chong, chief representative of WildAid's Beijing office, told China News Weekly that to escape the crackdown, the vast majority of rhino horn sales have shifted to social media, especially WeChat. Sellers and buyers can communicate and pay privately through WeChat, and sellers usually publish product information in the circle of friends or customer groups, which adds a lot of difficulty to law enforcement.
Ma Chenyue reminded that online trading has played an important role in the smuggling of rhinoceros horn products, and of the 15 criminal cases of illegal acquisition, transportation and sale of rhino horn recorded by IFAW in 2019, 14 involved the network. "Online platforms are a common tool used by criminals to advertise, contact communication, transfer payments, and need to be paid attention to."
"International" smuggling networks
With the arrest of chen youren and ruan yucheng, the other two main criminals behind the scenes, the large transnational rhino horn illegal smuggling criminal gang seized by Xiamen Customs was unveiled. Behind overseas procurement, cross-border trafficking, smuggling into the country, rapid distribution, interlocking and clear division of labor is a well-organized and highly professional smuggling gang. In the division of labour, there are special members of the gang responsible for receiving and loading goods on board in Africa; The various links of smuggling are independent of each other, and the lines are clearly cut. As a veteran anti-smuggling policeman, in Zeng Xuefeng's view, the difficulty in cracking down on such smuggling crimes lies in how to find out the cargo owners hidden behind the scenes.
In the gang, Wang Yongming has multiple identities, he is both the owner of the goods and responsible for organizing the supply of goods, and is a key player in maintaining the operation of the smuggling chain. In fact, setting up a smuggling lane is not an easy task. "Without the cooperation of the African locals, you can't get the 'goods'." Zeng Xuefeng pointed out that smuggling businessmen like Wang Yongming have complex local connections in Africa. Bao Told China News Weekly that Wang Yongming had bribed a local police officer to help transport rhino horn to smuggling ships. One of the shareholders responsible for smuggling in is the president of a Portuguese chamber of commerce in Fujian, and Mozambique is a Portuguese-speaking country, which also shows the complex ecology of the rhino horn smuggling network.
Wildlife Trade Research Group has been focusing on the "Asian role" in the "black business" of rhino horn more than a decade ago. According to earlier data, the largest number of Asian suspects arrested in South Africa on suspicion of rhino horn crimes were Vietnamese, followed by Chinese and Thai nationals. Susie Watt, an internationally renowned animal protection expert, said in a previous interview with the media that Chinese rarely involve the front end of rhino horn crime, that is, the actual poaching behavior; in contrast, they often assume the role of intermediary who buys rhino horn from poachers.
Previously, south Africa's anti-poaching special police introduced that the rhino horn smuggling interest chain is generally composed of five layers: the lowest poachers are often poor blacks; the second layer is local small-scale acquisition and transshipment, known as "runners"; the third layer is a national acquirer, engaged in more professional and organized group crime; the fourth layer is an acquirer and exporter in Africa, mostly Vietnamese, and some are Chinese; the fifth layer is the leader of Vietnamese and Chinese organization sales.
Huang Hongxiang once played a Chinese buyer and became an undercover agent in South Africa's anti-poaching department. He told China News Weekly that there is now a big misconception that the Chinese involved in the illegal wildlife product trade are gangsters or vicious smugglers, but in fact, most Chinese smugglers are ordinary businessmen. Wang Yongming, the main culprit in the extraordinarily large rhino horn smuggling case cracked by Xiamen Customs, is a famous trader in Africa. "Wang Yongming's trading company does not make money, it is an empty shell, and usually helps people pour foreign exchange." Bao Qi introduced.
"Smuggling rhino horn doesn't mean you can get around with a year or two in Africa." Huang Hongxiang pointed out that these Chinese who have lived in Africa for many years have a very rich network of local resources. "On the one hand, they have created a market in the local area, so that more locals can see that wildlife products can be sold for money, which objectively increases the motivation of local people to go poaching; on the other hand, they understand the local situation and know the sales channels in China." Most African countries lack strict supervision and market supervision systems, giving these smugglers loopholes to exploit.
Huang Hongxiang said that what drives these Chinese to engage in the illegal rhino horn trade is still a huge black interest behind it. At present, the Asian region is still the main region for rhino horn consumption. UnODC data shows that about 5.6 tons of rhino horn enter the market each year. Of these, 0.4 tons were seized in Africa and the remaining 5.2 tons were smuggled outside Africa. The vast majority (about 5.1 tonnes) entered East and South-East Asia, of which 0.5 tonnes were seized and the remaining 4.6 tonnes went to Asian terminal markets. According to a report by the Wildlife Conservation Society International (WCS), between 2016 and 2018, the annual illegal trade in rhino horn in the Asian end-consumer market alone amounted to US$170 million to US$280 million.
Yu Chong, chief representative of WildAid Beijing, told China News Weekly that the main demand for rhino horn in Asia in recent years has been medicine and investment products. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that rhino horn has the functions of cooling blood, detoxifying and clearing heat. In Vietnam, many people regard rhino horn as an expensive health medicine. "The superstition that rhino horn can cure cancer is likely to be related to the 150,000 cancer cases in Vietnam every year." Yu Chong said. In China, Angong Beef Yellow Pills were once widely regarded for containing rhino horn. After China completely banned rhino horn from medicine in 1993, there were still many "Lao An Gong Niu Huang Pills" and "North Korea An Gong Niu Huang Pills" using rhino horn recipes on the black market. Ma Chenyue introduced that in addition to medicine, rhino horn products are also regarded as precious collections by many people. Some people believe that with the decline of rhino populations, rhino horn products have the function of preserving and increasing value. Several customs smuggling officers are concerned that "the more precious the rhino horn, the more fatally attractive it is to some buyers.".
Poverty and corruption are catalysts for poaching
The WCS recently submitted a risk warning to the relevant Chinese authorities. From December 2020 to February 2021, there were three consecutive cases of rhino horn smuggling in South Africa and Vietnam, with a large number of seizures, each of which seized more than 60 kilograms of rhino horn, and all of them were smuggled by freight. WCS predicted that this is the rhino horn smuggling criminal gang began to centralize the shipment of goods previously hoarded, and adopted a more "optimized" freight smuggling method instead of the past personnel smuggling method, suggesting that the Chinese customs department remain vigilant.
Last year's rhino poaching in Africa experienced a "quiet" year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data released recently by south Africa's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries shows a significant decline in rhino poaching. A total of 594 rhinos were killed in 2019, with 394 poaching in 2020, down 33 percent; data from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) also shows a clear downward trend, with 0 rhino poaching in Kenya in 2020.
Some animal protection groups are wary of this, arguing that the reason for the decline in poaching is not only because of the impact of the epidemic, but also because the reduction in rhino populations has made poaching more difficult, especially in Kruger National Park in South Africa. According to data released by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) at the 2019 CoP18 conference, the number of rhinos in Africa as of 2018 was 23,562, distributed in 14 countries including South Africa, Kenya and Namibia. South Africa's rhino population accounts for about 80% of the entire Africa, dominated by white rhinos. In 2020, 245 rhinos were hunted in Kruger National Park, accounting for 62% of all Poaching in South Africa. Yu Chong told China News Weekly that the decline in data does not fully indicate that there has been a decrease in attempts or actions to poach rhinos, such as in South Africa's Kruger National Park, where 2019 recorded poaching attempts and actions were as high as 2014, but fortunately most of the poaching attempts and operations were successfully intercepted.
Huang Hongxiang told China News Weekly that poachers are generally divided into two categories, one is a well-equipped professional poaching gang, which is usually equipped with advanced thermal telescopes, night vision goggles, GPS systems, fully automatic rifles and even helicopters and military armored vehicles; the more are poor local villagers, "who hold old-fashioned rifles, bows and arrows and even poison."
Poverty is a catalyst for poaching, and on the Mozambican-South African border, some locals rely heavily on income from poaching from rhino horn. "Because of poverty, these villagers poach rhinos and sell them to grassroots consignees who buy rhino horns locally." Huang Hongxiang introduced. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), rhino horn costs 55 times as much per unit as ivory during poaching, $1,000 for an elephant and $24,000 for a rhinoceros. Another set of data shows that even as a low-level member of a local rhino poaching gang, participating in a poaching activity can earn between $2,500 and $5,000, while local farmers or miners earn just a few hundred dollars a year.
Some local animal protection organizations in Africa told Huang Hongxiang that on the one hand, the epidemic has exacerbated local poverty, causing more people to take risks for their livelihoods; on the other hand, the epidemic has affected the financial income of local protected areas, and anti-poaching patrols have weakened. According to feedback from WildAid to China News Weekly, the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged Africa's tourism industry into a quagmire, with a large number of protected areas that rely on tourism projects on the verge of collapse. When the economy is in trouble, conservation is ranked last in terms of prioritization of funding and law enforcement investments.
"There is good reason to believe that South Africa remains a focal point for rhino poaching at the moment." Ma Chenyue said. In November 2020, local authorities in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province confirmed the discovery of 7 white rhino carcasses in different areas of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi reserve, fearing that large-scale poaching was continuing. South Africa's Kruger National Park is home to the world's largest rhino population, with a 7,580-square-mile reserve, resulting in a lack of adequate regulatory manpower in Kruger Park, which requires adequate financial security to be effectively regulated.
The lack of people, the lack of money and the lack of equipment are the realities facing African countries in protecting rhinos. Debul, a spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Development, Tourism and Environment of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, said there were not enough rangers and anti-poachers and that the local government could not afford to hire more rangers as the provincial budget was cut by at least 5 billion rand.
In recent years, in order to protect rhinos, some african countries have implanted chips in the horns of rhinos to establish a rhino identity system. Of the rhino horns seized by Xiamen Customs this time, 70 pieces contain chip information. "This shows that these rhino horns have been seized and sold." According to Bao Qi, the customs department has already informed the relevant countries of the problem of law enforcement corruption in Africa discovered in the extraordinarily large rhino horn smuggling case.
Huang Hongxiang told China News Weekly that there are a large number of rhino horn stored in warehouses in some African countries, "the price of rhino horn per kilogram can reach 40,000 to 60,000 US dollars, and the monthly salary of the staff who guard the warehouse is the limit of 200 US dollars." Huang Hongxiang believes that extreme poverty in Africa, inefficient law enforcement environment and corruption make it difficult to ban rhino horn poaching and illegal smuggling trade.
"Although some poachers were caught, the leaders and middlemen of the criminal gangs were not punished." Yu Chong suggested that high-level sellers and buyers, as well as criminal gangs and key figures in South Africa and Mozambique, should be arrested, prosecuted and punished under existing law, while corruption in national parks and protected areas should be combated. According to multiple animal protection experts interviewed, ending poaching does not depend on stopping how many poachers are stopped, but rather requires more international cooperation to dismantle crime upstream of the illicit trade chain.
(Wang Yongming, Liu Hequn, Chen Youren, ruan yu became pseudonyms)