Fidelis E. Satriastanti

Increasing illegal trade in pangolins, a mammal with scales like an armadillo, has diminished the creature’s numbers. The animals are used for meat and scales, which are said to have healing properties. (Photo: EPA)

Pangolin Smugglers Arrested in Riau

Police in Riau foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 50 pangolins — a rare, scaly, ant-eating mammal — overseas on Saturday and are currently questioning three men involved in the operation.

Pangolins are indigenous to the equatorial areas of Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand. Their meat is considered a delicacy in China and their scales used in Chinese medicine.

Deputy district police chief Anis Prasetio said the men were arrested in Sengcalang village in Keritang subdistrict, Indragiri Giri district, on Saturday night.

“We were actually doing a routine inspection for presidential election preparations and it turned out there was a Suzuki camper van carrying frozen pangolins in six boxes with each box containing about nine pangolins,” he said.

“We have only questioned three suspects, all of them coming from out of town,” Anis said.

He said that the suspects had confessed to trying to initially ship the pangolins to Jambi Province.

“However, we are still expanding the investigation because usually these animals are shipped overseas,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dwi Nugroho Adhiasto, coordinator of the wildlife crimes unit at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said pangolins were often shipped to China, Taiwan and Vietnam through Palembang, Medan or Jakarta.

“The illegal trade for pangolins has been going on since 2000 in large numbers,” Dwi said. “From 2000 to 2003, it reached about 20 tons per month.” He said that the illegal trade in pangolins, however, had slowed recently because of the decreasing number of pangolins available and the success of a major raid on smugglers in 2008, which was considered the biggest in Southeast Asia.

In 2008, a police raid in Palembang, South Sumatra, uncovered 13.8 tons of meat, equivalent to about 2,500 pangolins.

“The raid in 2008 proved effective because the police exposed a major syndicate in Palembang which owned its own factory and ran an operation involving capturing, killing and even shipping pangolins,” Dwi said.

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