Police crack down on wild animal trafficking ring, arrest 19

Chinese police have cracked down on a criminal chain of hunting and selling precious wild animals, arresting 19 people and rescuing 65 wild animals, including marques and various snakes, according to a report by ThePaper.cn, a Shanghai-based media outlet.

The operation, which took place in Xing'an county, Hubei province, also dismantled a criminal network spanning multiple provinces and resulted in the confiscation of 173 bodies of various precious animals and 11 hunting rifles.

The estimated value of the seized animals amounts to nearly one million yuan ($140,000).

The investigation began in August when the police department in Xing'an county received a report that certain individuals were secretly purchasing wild marques, a national second-class wildlife species, in Pingshui village, Xingshan county.

Further investigation revealed that, between late July and early August, a man named Cao from Henan province paid two visits to Xingshan county and purchased a total of five wild monkeys from a local villager surnamed Long at prices ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 yuan each.

Additionally, a man surnamed Lu from Yichang in Hubei province had also made multiple trips to Xingshan to purchase wild marques and resell them to Cao. Cao primarily purchased the monkeys as captive monkeys and sold them to pharmaceutical companies.

Following the lead of the two suspects, the police in Hubei managed to capture all 19 suspects with the help of their counterparts from Henan and Guizhou provinces.

Among the seized 173 animal bodies were critically endangered species such as the small Indian civet, which is under first-class national protection, and Chinese goral and leopard cats, all national second-class protected animals.

After conducting necessary investigations and sample collection, the investigating officers released 43 snakes and the healthy monkeys that met the criteria for reintroduction into the wild. The remaining monkeys are currently being temporarily housed in Yichang.