Criminal assets remaining in the hands of poachers, giving them the liberty to invest in more illicit operations
Photo for representation only. Source: iStock Inadequate financial investigations of wildlife trafficking in the European Union can give rise to illegal businesses, said a new report.
Financial investigations and heightened awareness by the private financial sector can expose serious crimes associated with wildlife and timber trafficking that would otherwise largely go undetected in the European Union, the report by TRAFFIC, a wildlife and plant conservation non-profit, and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Wildlife Money Trails focuses on helping law enforcement authorities and financial institutions uncover financial crimes related to wildlife and timber trafficking in the EU. The report contains 16 case studies, which amounted to 18 million euros of illicit profits.
Wildlife and timber trafficking often involves transnational organised crime networks and generates significant illicit proceeds running into billions each year. Despite the seriousness of this criminal activity, related financial investigations and asset recovery approaches remain largely underutilised in the EU, the report mentioned. Investigations and prosecutions of wildlife trafficking still rely primarily on charges for poaching or trafficking, it added.
Wildlife criminals are, therefore, not punished for the financial crimes they have committed, and their criminal assets remain in their hands, allowing them to further invest in their illegal business and expand their operations.
Most of the wildlife traffickers are “first and foremost interested in making money” and it is the profit that drives, helps sustain and expand their business, said Emilie Van der Henst, senior manager, wildlife trafficking, TRAFFIC and WWF.
The fight against wildlife trafficking cannot be won without targeting what is at the core of the motivation of traffickers, she added.
The report seeks to help identify the higher-level criminals within a network as well as estimate the amount of money generated by criminal activity, which can be used for asset recovery, the researchers wrote.
Seizing the assets of criminals is the key to weakening the lucrative smuggling business and preventing further business expansion, emphasised the report.
Criminal networks rely on corruption and bribing of public officials in origin, transit and destination countries to facilitate the trafficking of illegally sourced wild fauna and flora. The payment of bribes is done to either obtain falsified documents or avoid monitoring and inspections to allow the safe passage of wildlife or timber through checkpoints and across borders, the report added. This can take place in exporting, transit and importing countries.
Criminals responsible for wildlife and timber trafficking have been known to establish contacts with local CITES authorities and other relevant authorities to obtain falsified permits or to falsify the origin of the wildlife.
In 2016, INTERPOL estimated the global cost of corruption in the forestry sector to be in the order of 26.9 billion euros annually. Analysis conducted by INTERPOL identified corruption as occurring most commonly at the point of harvest (50 per cent of cases), followed by road transport (23.1 per cent of cases) and at the processing plants (26.9 per cent of cases).
One of the case studies included in the report is of the seizure of furniture imported into Belgium made from Indian Rosewood. The estimated value of the hauls was 3,267,419 euros.
The timber products (furniture) were imported from India by a Belgian furniture company, without valid CITES export or import permits. The shipping documents falsely claimed the imported furniture was manufactured from non-CITES species.
Another case study was of a Swedish pet shop used to trade protected species from Asia. The suspect was the owner of a pet shop near Stockholm, which was a registered business.
In May 2021, police executed a search warrant on the premises of the pet shop. During the search, police found the suspect in possession of a large number of CITES-listed species of reptiles, without the correct documentation.
In the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking launched in November 2022, the European Commission called for systematically launching financial investigations in organised crime investigations and asset recovery procedures. The new action plan builds on the previous EU action plan against wildlife trafficking (2016-2020).
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