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INTERPOL recently executed the largest-ever edition of its annual series of coordinated of raids to dismantle criminal shipments and networks of trafficked and poached wildlife. Called Operation Thunder, some 30,000 live animals were seized in 4,620 raids across 134 countries, 30% more than last year. INTERPOL identified 1,100 suspects and issued 69 notices of criminal activity to participating nations’ police forces. Operation Thunder took place between September 15th and October 15th.

Wildlife poachers can now be located and arrested across the central African forests thanks to state-of-the-art AI listening technology. A network of microphones has been deployed across the rainforests to detect gunshots from illegal poaching of elephants and other animals, and American scientists are using AI to ensure the network can distinguish gunshots over the din of the jungle environment. The web of acoustic sensors was deployed in Gabon, Congo, and Cameroon, creating the possibility of real-time alerts to the sounds of gun-based poaching.

Strides made with hefty sentences and fines for criminals endangering game rangers and animals. When Jimmy Mashopane of Winterveld, north of Pretoria, was arrested for shooting, killing and mutilating nine white rhino in a Free State game reserve, taking 14 horns estimated at more than R500,000, veteran prosecutor Antoinette Ferreira threw the book at him. That one of the rhino was a month away from giving birth "only enhances one's sense of abomination", judge Phillip Loubser said.

Ben Simasiku, a 31-year-old suspected ivory smuggler, has been arrested in Zambia after the first-ever Interpol public appeal, dubbed to track down nine environmental fugitives.