Airport smuggling through luggage remains widespread because traffickers prioritise speed in transporting live animals to buyers.
KUALA LUMPUR: Wildlife trafficking syndicates are exploiting regional demand and porous cross-border networks while law enforcement efforts continue to net mainly low-level operatives instead of the masterminds orchestrating the trade.
Conservation experts warned that virtually no species is spared, with traffickers targeting everything from Malayan tigers and primates to exotic tortoises smuggled in from overseas to feed an expanding illegal wildlife market.
Traffic Southeast Asia director Kanitha Krishnasamy said Malaysia remains both a source and transit hub for trafficked wildlife, with syndicates operating across borders and adapting quickly to shifting consumer demand.
“We have native species such as our tigers being poached, also birds, turtles and primates such as gibbons and siamangs.”
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She was speaking after the Wildlife Illegal Poaching and Trade session of a forum held here yesterday.
She said traffickers were also bringing non-native endangered species into Malaysia, including critically endangered tortoises from Madagascar and Indian star tortoises from South Asia.
Kanitha said enforcement agencies were making arrests and carrying out prosecutions but investigations often failed to reach the syndicate leaders directing the operations.
“Unfortunately, it is not just one or two individuals who are part of the network.
Arrests are taking place and prosecutions are taking place but very often, we do not actually find the masterminds. Investigations to nab the masterminds are what is needed.”
She said airport smuggling through luggage remains widespread because traffickers prioritise speed in transporting live animals to buyers.
“You may have a bag full of 200 tortoises. If half of them die, smugglers just think that is the cost of doing business. They can still make money from the remaining 100.”
Earlier during the forum, Kanitha said demand for wildlife products was constantly evolving, with animals trafficked for pets, traditional medicine, jewellery, display items, cultural practices and superstition.
She said unlike some neighbouring countries where illegal wildlife is openly sold in physical markets, much of Malaysia’s illicit trade had shifted online.
Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia country director Dr Mark Ryan Darmaraj said consumer demand remains the key force sustaining poaching and trafficking activities.
He said traffickers were continuously finding new ways to monetise wildlife parts, and cited a case involving an elephant carcass discovered without tusks but with sections of its skin removed.
“It turned out there was a trend where the skin was used to make trinkets. It came under the disguise of being used as an amulet to ward off evil spirits.
“That is how perverse demand can be altered and shifted. Today, one part of the tiger can be used for traditional Chinese medicine.
Tomorrow, someone else will come up with something else.”
Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia Department Enforcement division senior assistant director Hellen Menging Anak Bennett Buan said combating wildlife crime requires coordinated action involving the Wildlife and National Parks Department, police, Customs, Immigration, state authorities and NGOs.
She cited data showing that Operasi Bersepadu Khazanah recorded RM398.6 million in wildlife-related seizures between 2019 and 2025.
