By Rich Bowden:
Australia and New Zealand are two of the 18 countries targeted by international law enforcement agency INTERPOL in a global operation against the illegal trade in traditional medicines containing protected wildlife products.
Bengal Tiger. Credit: Ramakrishnan
The sting was carried out over the month of February and resulted in a series of arrests and the seizure of more than EUR 10 million ($AUD 15 million) worth of illegal traditional medicines. According to an March 5 INTERPOL release, the operation — known as Operation Tram — was carried out with the assistance of national wildlife enforcement authorities, police, customs and specialized units from 18 countries across all five continents.
The team uncovered a large amount of traditional medicines containing, or purporting to contain, protected species such as the tiger, bear and rhinoceros.
David Higgins, Manager of the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme said in a statement the close co-operation between the various agencies had resulted in the success of the operation.
“A primary goal of Operation Tram was to combat the illegal trade in endangered wildlife, which is a threat to our planet’s biodiversity and demonstrates the commitment of INTERPOL and its member countries in fighting this type of crime,” he said.
“This operation has again proved that while environmental criminals may cross borders and display high levels of organization, so too will the international law enforcement community in its efforts to apprehend those criminals.
“The success of this operation would not have been possible without the close co-operation and dedication of the police, customs, wildlife law enforcement agencies and specialized units in the 18 participating countries,” added Mr Higgins.
The WWF-UK‘s wildlife trade advisor, Heather Sohl congratulated the efforts of the INTERPOL-led operation in a statement released by the NGO calling it a “blueprint for further actions.”
“It’s great to see 18 countries all working simultaneously to investigate and curtail the trade in traditional medicines containing threatened species,” she said. ” This can be a blueprint for future action on other areas of illicit wildlife trade too.”
Countries involved in Operation Tram were Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, India, Italy, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.
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