Customs to increase border patrols to curb wildlife smuggling

The General Administration of Customs said it will increase border patrols to discover and fight wildlife smuggling as quickly as it can after 12 people suspected of smuggling gecko-related products were caught on Thursday.

The capture came after the country vowed to harshly crack down on illegal consumption of wildlife amid the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, as the virus is widely believed to have originated in wild animals, according to the administration.

Its preliminary investigation found that the suspects brought in products made of gecko, a wild animal on the nation's protection list, from overseas without reporting it to customs, and obtained profits by selling them to medicine markets in several provinces, including South China's Guangdong, East China's Anhui and Southwest China's Sichuan.

Gecko is popular among some people for it so-called medicinal and food value, and related hunting, buying and smuggling of the animal are difficult to prohibit because of high profits and market demand, it said.

Since the virus swept the country, the central leadership has stressed several times promoting legislation, strictly combating the illegal wildlife trade and market, eliminating bad habits of eating wild animals and controlling risks to public health security, it said.

To implement the requirements, the administration said it quickly launched a campaign against wildlife smuggling as a move to fully support the control work of the epidemic and effectively protect people's health and safety.

It noted it will further carry out the requirements, maintain the strict crackdown and increase risk evaluation to improve the accuracy battle against smuggling.

While urging passengers to report wildlife-related products at customs, the administration said it is going to intensify its efforts against organized smugglers and those making use of the internet to smuggle wild animals.

Border patrols and international cooperation will be strengthened to break smuggling chains and solve the problem from the root, it said.

In 2019, Chinese customs solved 467 cases of wildlife-related smuggling, an increase of more than double year-on-year, according to a statistic from the administration.

Of the cases, 170 involved ivory-related products and customs seized 9.2 tons of such products in total, respectively 3.5 times and 10 times growth year-on-year, it said.

The administration also shared accurate messages nine times last year to help customs in Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore in cases related to smuggling ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horns, it added.