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Tiny plants in plastic pots, each carefully labeled, cram a South African greenhouse. Each is the evidence of at least one crime. These are strange plants without typical stems or leaves. Some look like greenish thumb-tips, others like grapes or rounded stones. Some sprout small, bright flowers. Few are more than an inch tall. I've agreed not to disclose this location because the plants, confiscated from poachers and smugglers, are valuable and could be re-stolen by the same criminal networks that first dug them from their natural habitats to traffic overseas.

Globally, pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals and China is one of the main destinations for their scales and meat. Conducting separate studies on the characteristics of the illegal trade in pangolin meat and in scales in China will provide a basis for devising more targeted protection strategies and actions. This study focused on the illegal pangolin-scale trading network in China by collating relevant cases of smuggling published in China Judgements Online, revealing that most scales came from Africa.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers have arrested two men with 10 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 89 kilogrammes valued at Sh8.9 million. The officers from Mwingi, accompanied by a KWS covert team from the headquarters in Nairobi were acting on intelligence information. The officers intercepted the vehicle the two were in at around 1 pm. KWS said one of the suspects, who was driving the vehicle, was an officer with a government agency.