Xiamen Customs Cracks Case of Smuggling Live Endangered Monitor Lizards Most of the suspects are teenagers

Smuggling of 300 live endangered monitor lizards! Eight suspects were arrested, 6 of whom were juveniles, the youngest being only 15 years old. Recently, a reporter from Legal Daily interviewed Xiamen Customs about the first case of smuggling of endangered species of monitor lizards through postal channels.

Courier gifts surprise live monitor lizards

"On September 3, when we inspected a mail from abroad with the declared item name of 'Gift', we found that the image of the parcel was abnormal, so we decided to open the package for inspection. When I opened the cardboard box and found that the white net pocket inside was squirming, I immediately moved the net pocket to the quarantine box, carefully opened the net pocket, and 15 lizards crawled out of it. Lin Libin, head of the postal goods supervision section of the Xiamen Post Office, recalled. Later, these lizards were called plain monitor lizards and belonged to the endangered species listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Subsequently, the Xiamen Customs inspectors reviewed the incoming mail on the same day and found that a mail from overseas declared as a "plastic box" was similar to the previously seized lizard mail, and after further investigation, the mail was the same consignee as the plains monitor lizard seized on the same day.

The case was immediately transferred to the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau. The anti-smuggling department quickly uploaded the parcel information involved in the case to the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Command Center, fully launched the "big data" mapping, and finally locked the main suspect involved in the case, Cai Mou (17 years old). On September 5, the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau implemented a controlled delivery, arrested the criminal suspect Cai Mou in Anhai Town, Jinjiang, Quanzhou City, and seized 10 green iguanas of endangered species listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. On September 6, xiamen customs anti-smuggling police arrested the main suspect in the case, Ni Moulun, an overseas supplier, in the Jing'an District of Shanghai, and found 41 illegally held snakes such as ball pythons, rainbow crabs, and bamboo leaf greens from Ni Moulun's shanghai residence, of which 5 were endangered species in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and 25 were wild animals with important ecological, scientific and social research value. On September 10, 2 "next family" (under 16 years old) sold by the criminal suspect Cai Mou in the case were arrested, and 5 smuggled green iguanas involved in the case were seized on the spot.

Subsequently, the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau continued to accurately study and judge Ni Moulun's online sales "next home" through big data analysis, and coordinated with logistics companies to carry out tracing. As of September 25, anti-smuggling police have recovered 80 smuggled green iguanas involved in the case that have not been delivered by ni Moulun, an overseas supplier.

Pan Yibin, deputy chief of the anti-smuggling section of the Dongdu Customs Anti-Smuggling Branch, said that since July 2019, overseas criminal suspect Ni Moulun, in order to make profits, has met mainland pet players through WeChat pet groups, knowing that the green iguana, plain monitor lizard, etc. are endangered wild animals that are prohibited from being bought and sold and imported, and as a "middleman", he has smuggled 12 batches of live monitor lizards into the country, using postal channels to "break up" multiple batches of scattered shipments to Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanxi and other regions. Make a profit through WeChat or pet market sales. After investigation, ni Moulun organized the supply of goods and smuggled more than 300 lizards into the country. In addition, Ni Moulun sold "next home" Cai Mou through the Facebook network platform to buy 10 smuggled inbound green iguanas. A total of 318 plains monitor lizards, green iguanas and pythons were found to be smuggled in the whole case.

Keep cool crawlers and don't touch the law

"Many of the suspects involved in this case are minors, the youngest is only 15 years old, and one of them was supposed to be escorted to college." When talking to reporters about the criminal suspects in this case, Cui Qingchao, director of the Xiamen Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau, said with great regret that especially the parents of these minors did not realize that the children's purchase of smuggled monitor lizards through illegal channels would have such serious consequences.

"Schools usually teach teenagers not to participate in robbery and theft, but they don't expect teenagers to be involved in 'pets'. Profit drive is also an important reason for these teenagers to smuggle endangered animals. Xu Xiangmin, deputy director of the Anti-Smuggling Branch of Dongdu Customs, told reporters that taking the plain monitor lizard as an example, the price of a monitor lizard abroad is equivalent to only a few hundred yuan, but it can be sold for thousands of yuan in china. In this case, most of the teenagers involved in the case were very cool to raise monitor lizards and climb pets, and did not hesitate to buy through illegal channels, and later found that the development of "next home" through the network platform can continue to make profits, and then attract friends around them to form a team, using modern marketing methods, using WeChat groups and other online social means, publishing news about the sale of endangered live monitor lizards, and developing their own customer groups to make profits.

"Teenagers illegally buy smuggled lizards through online platforms, there is already subjective intention, and a crime is likely to have a huge impact on teenagers' lives." Xu Xiangmin especially reminded that due to the low level of social awareness, some wild animals that look very cool and novel will attract teenagers to buy and breed. However, the law stipulates that smuggling only 1 endangered live lizard can be "sentenced", and more than 4 can be regarded as "particularly serious circumstances" and may be sentenced to more than 10 years. Although it is understandable to love "pets", it must not touch the bottom line of the law.

Wild animals may carry deadly diseases

It is understood that the plains monitor lizard and green iguana are endangered animals from abroad and are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (cites). According to the regulations, it is forbidden to trade, carry and mail rare species of wild animals and plants and their products into or out of China's borders without import and export certificates allowed by cites.

According to the case-handling personnel, the endangered live lizards seized this time are all "juveniles" with a length of 10 to 20 centimeters, which have become the preferred targets of smugglers because of their small size and ease of delivery. However, during the transportation process, due to the difficulty of meeting the requirements such as temperature, humidity and food in the parcel, the health and survival of such "juvenile" lizards are threatened. Moreover, the live lizards smuggled into the country have not been inspected and quarantined, and many "climbers" do not have a good grasp of their habits and feeding methods, which may also cause the death of lizards. "For wildlife, especially endangered wildlife, the best protection is to release them into nature." Cui Qingchao said.

In addition, special attention needs to be paid to the fact that exposure to wild animals may threaten the body's own health. Historically, many diseases that posed a great threat to human life originally originated in animals. It is understood that the infection rate of the surface tick of the monitor lizard is 88.9%, and the infection rate of parasites in the body is 100%. It can transmit a variety of diseases such as forest encephalitis, Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever, West Nile fever, Lyme disease, endemic relapsing fever, salmonellosis, etc., and when kept as pets, infected animals can cause human diseases in direct or indirect ways.

It is understood that at present, the various lizards and snakes seized in this case have been handed over to professional institutions for safekeeping and conservation.