Hainan cracks down on criminal gang of trading in endangered wildlife products

Police in South China's Hainan Province recently dismantled a criminal gang suspected of endangering rare and endangered wildlife, with seized items valued at 1.5 million yuan ($206,000), according to CCTV News on Sunday.

On November 18, police arrested a total of eight people involved in the case, and seized 629 pieces of giant clams, 211.41 kilograms of giant clams and raw materials, as well as 81 pieces of nautilus snails and other products. They also dismantled one black workshop and three stores.

In September, a police officer in Qionghai discovered during a patrol at a scenic area that a vendor pretending to sell shell crafts was covertly trading endangered wildlife products.

After in-depth investigations, the police identified an eight-member criminal gang. The group had been conducting illegal production, storage, transportation, and sales of endangered animal products in areas such as Tanmen and Boao, establishing an organized criminal network that severely endangered wildlife conservation.

After days of surveillance and evidence collection, police uncovered the gang's specific operational patterns and gathered solid proof of their crimes. On November 18, the Tanmen Coast Police Station coordinated with multiple police units to launch a targeted operation. They simultaneously apprehended the suspects in Tanmen and Boao and seized a large quantity of contraband at the scene.  

One of suspects, surnamed Yang, admitted that she regularly sold shell crafts at a stall near the seaside in Boao. To maximize profits, she secretly sold products made from endangered species such as tridacna and nautilus shells. 

When tourists expressed interest in purchasing such items, Yang would retrieve the goods from her home or even guide customers to the shop of Zhang, where the transactions would be completed. Yang earned a 10 percent commission on each transaction.

In 2021, nautiluses and all species of tridacninae were included in the List of State Key Protected Wild Animals in China. 

In 2017, Hainan enacted a regulation on the protection of coral reefs and tridacninae, prohibiting the harvesting, fishing, killing, selling, purchasing and processing of tridacninae products.

Currently, all the suspects have been placed under criminal detention by the police for the crime of endangering rare and endangered wildlife. The case remains under further investigation.