Drugs criminals diversify into the lucrative trade in tiger bones and rhino horns | NWO (2024)

Trading drugs and weapons brings in a lot of money, but trading in wildlife can be even more profitable. This is why organized crime has become involved in the trades of rare parrots, caviar or rhino horns. After all, they already have the networks in place.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, powdered rhino horn is an excellent medicine against high fever, heart disease or cancer. Big money is paid: a kilo on the black market can cost as much as 40,000 euros. This is not only lucrative for a poacher in Africa who comes across a giant like this on the savannah and wants to take care of his wife and children, but also for a criminal who usually deals in cocaine or heroine. Smuggling drugs is much more risky. “Criminal organisations are exploring these new markets, while not much is being done to combat this,” explains the ‘green’ criminologist Daan van Uhm, researcher at the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology. “As these animal species are quickly dying out – partly due to this illegal trade – it is important that something is done to change this.”

One of the few criminologists who is working fulltime on green crimes, Daan van Uhm, sees that a lot of environmental damage is theoretically not labelled – or not yet anyway – as ‘environmental crime’, since it is not illegal according to the law. Punishments for these crimes are much milder compared to crimes that are covered by criminal law. The entire planet is hit by tropical rain forests being destroyed; by species becoming extinct; by air, water and soil pollution, he states. “Activities that are damaging for the environment are becoming more and more visible and are being put on the international agenda. We are starting to see this behaviour as undesirable and unethical. Green criminologists are pioneers, who investigate this kind of behaviour from an eco-centric perspective.”

Hotspots

When he was still working on his PhD, Van Uhm was already interested in the illegal trade of wildlife. He used data about confiscations to study this phenomenon. In addition, he conducted field work in China, Russia and Marocco to discuss the trade in ‘traditional medicine’ (tiger bones, elephant skins, rhino horns) caviar and living monkeys with local people who were involved in this trade. It is estimated that this global illegal trade is a 23 billion dollar market making it one of the largest illegal markets, apart from drugs, weapons and human trafficking.

He was struck by the interconnectedness of some networks of environmental criminals with regular networks of organised crime. The Veni research project he worked on from 2018 onward allowed him to study these relationships more closely and in-depth. He analysed more than 100 cases that clearly showed the role of organised crime in green crimes. He used a cluster analyses to analyse the cases. Three different profiles of criminal groups were found, but also three hotspots where environmental crime takes place in the world.

The first hotspot for these kinds of criminal activities is the border area between Panama and Colombia (‘Darién’), a very dense jungle. It is not just a good place for smuggling cocaine and for human trafficking, it is also where a lot of illegal gold and timber is traded. Large parts of jungle have been cleared between the coca plantations to make room for illegal gold extraction.

The second hotspot is the border area between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand (‘The Golden Triangle’). Not only is this the centre for opium trade historically, but it is also the world’s largest transit port for endangered species. Van Uhm saw with his own eyes how the rhino horns were displayed to be sold in a Chinese casino rising above the jungle in Laos. The restaurant served expensive tiger bone wine – to increase the status of guests who ordered it. “In the accompanying ‘tiger zoo’ you could ask for one of the tigers to be slaughtered for its meat, bones or skin.”

Thirdly, the border area between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda is widely known for its biodiversity, with mountain gorillas roaming the slopes of Virunga vulcanos, rhinos protecting the lakes and elephants and lions exploring the savannahs. However, it is also an area of much conflict where militias and criminal groups are involved in deforestation, illegal mining and the ivory trade.

Repressive measures

It turns out that time and time again the same shady types who are also causing misery elsewhere are involved in green crimes. Colombian drug cartels do not seem to mind deforestation and illegal gold mining. “The fact is that the government’s repressive measures against the drug trade encourages cartels to start looking for new markets”, concludes Van Uhm. “The value of gold and timber is stable, the risk to get caught is small and the punishments are mild. Green crime is increasingly becoming a part of the portfolio of criminal Colombian groups.”

Research shows that organised crime invests its profits from trading drugs and weapons into trading wildlife. Money laundering of illegally earned money is not always easy, which is why Chinese organised crime groups like to invest in other clandestine activities. “Smuggling routes for drugs are also used for the wildlife trade,” says Van Uhm. Militias who are destroying large parts of the jungle in East Congo to supply timber to the European market or to produce charcoal invest their profits in buying weapons. The same goes for the illegal mining of gold, coltan and diamonds taking place in the same region.

His research also offered a wealth of information about how these criminal groups interact with the legitimate world of politicians (either corrupt or not), army officers and business people playing a part in these networks. Another important aspect is how this kind of organised crime is embedded in the local community. Young people in the area are recruited to poach tigers, to cut down trees or work in mining. They are often victims too, because their natural habitat is disappearing, they are driven away from their own land or their water and soil is being polluted.

Do they not resist? No, mostly they don’t. And not just because it is dangerous. Everyone in the impoverished border area between Congo and Rwanda tries to benefit in some way from the trade in tropical timber. “Civil servants who are there to check on everything turn a blind eye, and army officers are facilitating the trade, also because they have to fear for their own lives if they don’t,” explains Van Uhm. “Everyone simply accepts the fact that there is illegal trade. It is incredibly difficult to tell whether a piece of timber or a lump of gold has been legally or illegally acquired. This is why money laundering and illegal trading on the international market is a widely spread phenomenon.

If a dominant drugs cartel in a certain area wants a load of illegally harvested tree trunks to become part of a load of sustainably, legally harvested timber from concession areas, there are always people who will cooperate with this plan. Either out of fear or to make a profit. The same goes for illegal gold. You can’t tell from the ring you buy at the jewellers here if armed gangs and violence against nature have been a part of it.

All the more reason to think much more seriously about how to combat environmental crime, according to Van Uhm. “To prevent and address large-scale ecocide, we need a cultural change. New laws and guidelines are needed. Combatting and stopping green crime must be balanced with the repressive measures of governments to combat the illegal trade of drugs and weapons.”

Van Uhm concludes that the international public opinion seems to become ready soon to make the transition to ecocentric thinking and to combat these green crimes more forcefully. More and more, we are seeing human beings as part of nature and its ecosystem. It’s only fair and logical to give rights to nature, to animal species and to important ecosystems. Even criminal organisations understand that they have a responsibility sometimes. “A prominent member of the Colombian Gulf Clan cartel is a strong advocate in favour of making replanting compulsory - replanting illegally destroyed areas of rainforests because of its timber. The infamous Rwandan militia group, the FDLR in Congo claims that they are replanting forests themselves. Even organized crime can’t avoid having to do something against green crime in our rapidly changing world.”

Text: Edo Beerda
Translation: Christy de Back