In the early morning of March 9th, the General Administration of Customs uniformly directed the Nanning and Hefei Customs Anti-smuggling Bureaus, in conjunction with the public security organs of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, launched the "Guard 2020" special operation to combat the smuggling of wild animals and their products, and dispatched more than 150 police officers. 17 action teams were successfully deployed in Nanning, Guangxi, Chongzuo, and Luzhou, Anhui, and other places. A criminal gang smuggling pangolin scales was successfully removed. Nine suspects were arrested, and 820 kg of smuggled pangolin scales were seized at the scene.

Since the outbreak of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus, the General Administration of Customs has resolutely implemented the important directive spirit of Xi Jinping, and in accordance with the NPC Standing Committee ’s decision to comprehensively ban illegal wildlife trade, abolish the horrible habits of overeating and abusing wildlife, and effectively protect the people ’s health and safety. It has vigorously deployed the national customs to carry out a special operation of "Guard 2020", and will work with public security and other departments to crack down on smuggling of wild animals and their products, fully support the fight against the epidemic, and effectively safeguard the national ecological security and the physical and mental health of the people.

During the special operation, customs such as Nanning and Kunming increased their mobile inspections at the border in accordance with the unified deployment of the General Administration of Customs.

Recently, the anti-smuggling department of Nanning Customs found that during the inspection, suspicious vehicles bypassed the established checkpoints and smuggled wild animal products. They immediately established a task force to actively coordinate the public security organs in Guangxi to overcome difficulties such as inconvenience during the epidemic, conduct comprehensive investigations day and night, find out the situation of criminal gangs within a short period of time, and then started arrests. Preliminary investigations revealed that the criminal suspect Wang and others ordered a batch of pangolin scales overseas for illegal gains, and entrusted smuggling gangs with the responsibility of smuggling in from places without checkpoints on the Guangxi border, and then distributing it to Chinese traditional medicine markets and other places for profits in Anhui and Henan. At present, the Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureaus in Nanning and Hefei are working with public security organs in Guangxi, Anhui and other places to try to dig deeper into the case, expand the clues and expand the outcomes.

The successful detection of this case is another important outcome achieved by the General Administration of Customs since the special operation "Guard 2020". The national customs will resolutely implement the spirit of the important instructions of Xi, perseveringly and consistently, cracking down on the smuggling of wild animals and their products, and cutting off the chain of smuggling wild animals and their products.

(Photo source: Internet)

By / Maggie