Vietnamese syndicates play an outsized, sophisticated role in the illicit trade of elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn, pangolin scales, and other wildlife products, according to a recent undercover investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency that details sourcing, packing, and transporting ivory and rhino horn through an intricate maze of transport routes out of various African ports to Malaysia, then through Laos, and finally overland into Vietnam. The numbers are staggering. Since 2009, 11,414 elephants have been slaughtered, their ivory "processed" and soaked in wax before being concealed in timber and quartz and being sent through bribed customs agents in countries like Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania before reaching similarly bribed officials in Kuala Lumpur and Johor, according to the report, titled Exposing the Hydra: the growing role of Vietnamese syndicates in ivory trafficking. There, "Specialist Transporters" such as the recently arrested Teo Boon Ching take over.