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Karen Zhang

A Hong Kong court has handed down the city’s harshest penalty yet for smuggling pangolin scales, sentencing two mainland Chinese men to 21 and 27 months in jail for trafficking 100kg of the scales.
The outer layer of the critically endangered animal is highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine, despite the lack of proof of its effectiveness in treating ailments.
Zhang Guozhu, 47, from Fujian province, and Ding Wei, 21, from Zhejiang province, pleaded guilty to smuggling pangolin scales worth about HK$400,000 (US$51,610).
“Although the defendants did not kill the mammals with their own hands, they played an important role in the commercial activities in selling pangolin scales,” Deputy District Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung said in handing down the sentences. “Their responsibilities are the same with those who killed these mammals.”

 
Customs officers intercepted the two men at Hong Kong airport on July 17, 2019. They were arrested for violating the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance after failing to produce the requisite permit.
Pangolin scale smugglers: a few culprits caught, but masterminds behind illegal wildlife trade evade arrest
Ding, who was working in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a gold trader, had arrived from Kinshasa and was carrying about 100kg of scales in four suitcases. He said he was instructed by another man who promised to give him 12,000 yuan (US$1,690) for bringing the luggage to Hong Kong, and upon arrival was asked to hand over two suitcases containing 50.02kg in scales to Zhang, who had arrived from Xiamen in Fujian.
Zhang said he was to receive 1,000 yuan for flying into Hong Kong to pick up the bags. The men, who claimed they did not know each other, were planning to take the suitcases out of the airport’s restricted area and over the border to mainland China.

In sentencing, the judge used 36 months as the starting point, taking into account the guilty pleas and personal mitigation factors. Ding received the longer sentence of 27 months.
The maximum penalty for illegally importing pangolins, which in November 2018 were moved into the highest Appendix I category of Hong Kong’s endangered animal and plant law, is a HK$10 million fine and 10 years in jail.
The international trade of pangolin scales was banned in 2017, but smuggling has persisted, mostly into mainland China, with Hong Kong a key route. City authorities seized more than 62 tonnes of scales valued at more than HK$100 million between 2014 and last year, according to customs data.
Amanda Whitfort, an associate law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said the sentencing starting point was appropriate.
Could pangolins be a piece of the coronavirus puzzle?
“However, it is important for law enforcement to go beyond just prosecuting the mules and investigate the people who arranged the smuggling and paid the mules to carry the scales,” Whitfort said. Authorities should prosecute high-value wildlife smuggling cases the same way they did organised crime, she said, for greater deterrence.
In May last year, a Chinese traveller – also from Fujian province – was sentenced to 20 months in jail for smuggling 48kg of pangolin scales.

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Conservation

Hong Kong hands down its stiffest sentence yet for pangolin scale smuggling

The 100kg of pangolin scales seized from the two mainland Chinese men. Photo: Handout

FILE PHOTO: A customs officer shows a pangolin to the media at the customs department in Bangkok September 26, 2011. Officers stopped a pick-up truck carrying 97 pangolins, worth around 1 million baht ($32,372), in the southern province of Prachuap Khiri Khan on Sunday. According to custom officers, the pangolins were en route to be sold in China. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom/File Photo

Could pangolins be a piece of the coronavirus puzzle?

Scientists looking to find an intermediate species in the chain that led to humans being infected by Wuhan coronavirus are focusing on the pangolin. Photo: Handout

A man kills fish in a wet market in Wuchang,  Wuhan city, central China's Hubei province, on Jan. 05, 2020.  Unexplained pneumonia cases out broke  from the the Wuhan Huanan Sea Food Whole Sale Market in the city since the end of 2019, and up to Friday, Jan. 3, 44 patients were received in the hospital and 11 in critical condition. 05JAN20 SCMP / Simon Song

Pangolin scale smugglers: a few culprits caught, but masterminds behind illegal wildlife trade evade arrest

Some TCM practitioners claim pangolin scales can cure everything from inflammation to cancer. There is no scientific evidence to support these claims.

(Left to right): Timothy Lam Fung-ngai, Endangered Species Protection Officer (Enforcement); Yueng Ka-yan, Head of Ports and Maritime Command; and Wan Hing-chuen, Head of Syndicate Crimes Investigation Bureau, photographed with seized pangolin scales during the Hong Kong Customs press briefing at Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound in Lai Chi Kok, on combating cross-boundary endangered species smuggling activities. 01FEB19 SCMP / Winson Wong

Shutterstock ID 1021225699 shutterstock Asian Pangolin Manis species - Image

Seized pangolin scales photographed during the Hong Kong Customs press briefing at Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound in Lai Chi Kok, on combating cross-boundary endangered species smuggling activities. 01FEB19 SCMP / Winson Wong

***ONE TIME USE ONLY, PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE RE-USE - OTUO*** Pangolin scales for sale at a pharmacy in Shantou, Guangdong Province. These scales were kept in an unmarked plastic bag hidden from the counter, sold for 6 renminbi per gram Ã thatÃs less than $1. The worker told our undercover journalist that pangolin scales are good for reducing swelling and promoting lactation. HANDOUT PHOTO

Seized pangolin scales seen at a Customs presser with AFCD (Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department) on endangered spices smuggling, to conclude a 2-month operations to combat smuggling activities related to endangered spices, at the Customs Headquarters in Kwai Chung. 05SEP18 SCMP/ K. Y. Cheng

News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime


Two mainland Chinese men given 21 and 27 months in jail for trafficking in the critically endangered animal
They were found at the airport with 100kg of scales worth an estimated HK$400,000



Two mainland Chinese men given 21 and 27 months in jail for trafficking in the critically endangered animal. They were found at the airport with 100kg of scales worth an estimated HK$400,000.


Environment

Crime

Crime in China

Crime in Hong Kong

Hong Kong hands down its stiffest sentence yet for pangolin scale smuggling

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Two mainland Chinese men given 21 and 27 months in jail for trafficking in the critically endangered animal They were found at the airport with 100kg of scales worth an estimated HK$400,000

Two mainland Chinese men given 21 and 27 months in jail for trafficking in the critically endangered animal

They were found at the airport with 100kg of scales worth an estimated HK$400,000