Anson Wong, the notorious kingpin of the illegal wildlife trade, was finally convicted by a Malaysian court this week and sentenced to prison. He dealt in such rarities as snow leopard pelts, panda skins, Sumatran rhino horns and live Komodo dragons, buying and selling in Australia, China, Madagascar, New Zealand, South America and elsewhere. Full story of his capture and conviction on NatGeo NewsWatch.
Wong previously served five years in U.S. prison, after being nabbed by an extraordinary international undercover investigation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service called Operation Chameleon, considered one of the most successful in history. [You can read about this extraordinary sting operation in last January's National Geographic, in writer Bryan Christy's story, 'The Kingpin".] But Wong’s wife continued to operate the smuggling network while her husband was in prison, and Wong returned to Penang in 2003 to resume his criminal activities. “Nothing can be done to me,” Wong boasted then to an undercover agent. “I could sell a panda — and, nothing. As long as I’m here, I’m safe.”
He was caught this time by an alert airline security officer [Hear! Hear!] who noticed the broken lock on his luggage, and found it to be full of 95 boa constrictors.
From NatGeo NewsWatch:
Wildlife trafficking may be the world’s most profitable form of
transnational organized crime. The reason is not money alone, although
the profit margins can be spectacular. The reason is the low risk: When
it comes to wildlife trafficking, there is little chance of getting
caught. Around the world, law enforcement dedicated to wildlife
smuggling is woefully undermanned and underfunded. And even when
smugglers are caught, the most common penalty they face is a fine,
often no larger than a parking ticket.
Photo by Mark Leong in “Asia’s WIldlife Trade,” National Geographic, January 2010; NatGeo NewsWatch blog
Related: “The Last One,” by Verlyn Klinkerborg, National Geographic, January 2009, photos by Joel Sartore
WIldlife Trade – United States – Prison – Malaysia – National Geographic
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Wed, Sep 8, 2010
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