PICS: From Vietnam, to China, the route of the rhino trade

In Beijing, POI (person of interest) 06D-18 pulled out his cellphone, unwittingly showing the team of undercover investigators his friend’s WeChat site.

On display was a grim gallery of products his friend, a wildlife wholesaler, was advertising: tiger penis, bone, and balm, elephant ivory bracelets, wolf teeth and skin, helmeted hornbill bracelets, bear gall bladder and various rhino horn products.

Then, POI 06-18D told investigators. if they were interested, he had access to a master carver for custom services for a mere $59 (R760).

Accounts like these “are just a few examples of the many wildlife dealers in Vietnam and China” exposed in the Elephant Action League’s Operation Red Cloud, says Andrea Crosta, its executive director and head investigator.

But still its exhaustive, 11-month undercover probe “most likely only covered a fraction of the number of dealers and volume of available wildlife products actually in play within these countries”.

Operation Red Cloud, an intelligence gathering investigation, is the first into rhino horn trafficking in China in decades, “if not ever”, by an NGO designed to map the networks, the players and just how rhino horn is trafficked into China.

It’s dangerous work. “We put a lot of time into preparing the meetings and our profiles. The very risky part is the fact that we try to video record everything we see, and this is tricky. Traffickers are becoming more suspicious,” says Crosta.

The result is contained in “Grinding Rhino: An Undercover Investigation on Rhino Horn Trafficking in China and Vietnam”, a 100-page report released this week, which reveals how China is home to the largest illegal market for rhino horn in the world.

South Africa, Vietnam, China and Mozambique are most implicated in the rhino horn trade, accounting for 70% of seized global rhino horn from 2010 to 2015, says the report.

And all along the China-Vietnam border, where the EAL focused its investigation, the smuggling business is booming.

“Corruption among government officials working along the rhino horn supply chain is rampant.”

But even when governments are committed to tackling poaching and trafficking, their strategies are “fragmented” and often led by environmental agencies with little political power and no mandate to investigate organised crime networks fuelling poaching.

“The potential for huge profits and comparatively low risk of punishment has attracted highly sophisticated criminal networks to this lucrative transnational black market.”

Vietnam:

This South-east Asian country was long believed to be the main market for rhino horn but the EAL report reveals how it is not just a consumer, but a supplier of rhino horn to China. There, most high-crime smuggling occurs via mountain and land routes with old women carrying as much as 6kg of wildlife contraband on their backs” on mountainous routes into China - the shortest a mere three-minute walk.

A taxi driver can earn $880 a month carrying contraband through the border or working as a lookout for other smugglers.

Local police can pocket $150 a day charging people to pass through the border inspection-free. In Hanoi, wildlife dealers claim to have relationships with shipping companies so they can ship directly to Chinese customers.

China

The EAL’s investigation finds the black market in rhino horn is alive and well in China. “The investigative team was able to find available horn in nearly every location visited.”

Two distinct markets exist on the black market, one for medicine and one for luxury products. Although rhino horn products can be found in shops throughout China, recent market surveys have shown it has partially moved to exclusive social media platforms that function by invitation.

“In China many traders offer delivery of illicit goods through registered courier services Many illegal wildlife product dealers are involved in the redwood furnitures business or similar art and antiquities businesses.”

The report reveals how a seasoned rhino horn dealer alleged prior involvement with commanders in the Chinese military, who used him to identify authentic wildlife products (such as rhino horn) for them to purchase, as well as allowed the Chinese navy to pick up and carry wildlife contraband back to China.

South Africa

South Africa is on track to lose more than a 1000 rhinos for the fifth straight year, believes the EAL. It’s leading Operation Giona, an investigative operation, that started in October last year, into rhino poaching and trafficking of rhino horn in South Africa, with a focus on the smuggling routes into Mozambique.

“Following implications of a geographical shift in poaching rates from the Kruger National Park to KwaZulu-Natal, we set out to map the illicit rhino horn supply chain through KZN, Swaziland and lower Mozambique to inform authorities, and effectively disrupt rhino horn trafficking routes and distribution networks and possibly prevent continued poaching.”

Tomorrow Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa is expected to release the latest poaching statistics.

What now?

Data from Operation Red Cloud has been put in a 200-page confidential intelligence brief and submitted to law enforcement authorities in China and Vietnam, and relevant US and international agencies. This includes hundreds of photographs and hours of undercover footage, along with case files on 55 identified persons of interest.

Some accounts from the report:

TIGER

A key person of interest (POI) in the rhino horn trade, a restaurant owner in Hanoi, identified as 170-11, had a fake rhino horn in his restaurant.

Then he told investigators he would show them a real rhino horn.

“I’m trading these things, this is my job. Here is the photo of the tiger cub you’ve seen in the wine jar.

“I processed it with my hands in the backyard. Then I cooked the tiger.”

He showed them a large jar of tiger cub wine with the cub floating in it. “How do you put the tiger in the jar?,” they asked him.

“I straightened it, then put the back feet into the jar first, then the body, head and the rest.”

For a jug of tiger cub wine, it cost $2200, he said.

RHINO

EAL INVESTIGATORS: How long do you think this business can run?

TRADER: Five to 10 year.