On July 28, 2021, Nigerian customs officers raided a residential apartment in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos after receiving actionable intelligence from the Wildlife Justice Commission that the apartment was being used as a base for wildlife crime activities.
What Nigeria Customs Service officers found there was truly horrifying – a trove of wildlife parts and products worth $54 million USD, destined for export to buyers overseas:
- 196 sacks of pangolin scales weighting 15,734 lb. (7,137 kg.)
- 1,918 lb. (870 kg.) of elephant ivory
- 10 lb. (4.6 kg.) of pangolin claws
How many pangolins do you think nearly 16,000 lb. of scales represent? 14 pangolins? Maybe 140? Or perhaps even 1,400? No, even 1,400 is far off. Sadly, it corresponds to 14,000 pangolins!
Three suspects were arrested in the raid, all members of an international criminal network operating in West Africa.
This seizure is an important step toward dismantling a major trafficking network. Ms. Abimbola Animashawun – officer in charge of wildlife at the Nigeria Customs Service, who participated in the training for customs officers organized by Born Free USA in November 2020 and played an active part in the coordination of the seizure – said that “some good crime scene evidence was collected, which will be very useful for further analysis and investigation.”
Ms. Animashawun also informed us that the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service has approved the establishment of a Special Wildlife Crime Office in partnership with Focused Conservation, which will be immediately operational. This will undoubtedly build the capacity of law enforcement authorities of Nigeria to fight wildlife crime.
“Some good crime scene evidence was collected, which will be very useful for further analysis and investigation.”
– Abimbola Animashawun, Nigeria Customs Service Wildlife Officer
Nigeria is one the main transit and export hubs for wildlife trafficking in West Africa, especially for elephant ivory and pangolin scales. Since January 2020 alone, Nigerian law enforcement agents have seized 54,000 lb. (25,400 kg.) of pangolins scales – representing the deaths of a whopping 12,700 pangolins. In addition to the various training activities for law enforcement officers carried out in recent years, Born Free USA is in regular contact with the customs and wildlife conservation authorities in Nigeria to bring sustainable solutions for law enforcement authorities so that they can continue training their teams and ensure that the skills and knowledge acquired are not lost.
Born Free USA is also supporting Nigeria with the development of their national wildlife crime strategy and will continue expanding enforcement trainings in the country and across the subregion.
Born Free USA congratulates law enforcement officials in Nigeria for their tireless commitment to the fight against wildlife crime and for these successful raids and seizures! We hope that the increasing number of seizures, and the prosecution and sentencing of traffickers, will shine a light on the problem of wildlife crime and act as a deterrent to wildlife traffickers.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Aurora
