Protecting the planet against organized crime
Rhinos, pangolins, totoaba fish, rosewood. All are protected species under international law. And all are prized by organized crime groups as low-risk sources of high profits. Our first issue of INTERPOL Spotlight looks at how we combat the criminal networks threatening the planet.
Environmental crime has a devastating impact on climate, biodiversity, local habitats and the communities that rely on them. It is one of the most profitable forms of criminal activity worldwide, generating hundreds of billions of illegal dollars every year and growing on average at 5-7 per cent a year. In contrast, organized crime groups know that the penalties are low in most countries and that, where environmental protection agencies exist, they are not always under police authority. This high-profit, low-risk paradox, coupled with poor governance, corruption, and limited law enforcement resources, as well as growing industrial and consumer demand for valuable minerals and protected flora and fauna, means crimes against the environment have become even more attractive to organized criminal networks.
Extensive expertise on environmental crime
INTERPOL has taken the measure of the challenge by making our Environmental Security unit an integral part of our wider Organized Crime Directorate. Its specialists work closely with both colleagues in member countries and external partners to identify, track, disrupt and dismantle the networks involved in environmental crime and their complex transnational supply chains. Along with illegal mining and pollution, forestry and fisheries crimes, wildlife crime is a priority focus. INTERPOL is a founding partner of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime* and our work targeting the criminals that traffic protected fauna and flora spans the globe. “We are seeing increasingly clear evidence of criminal syndicates engaging in wildlife crime on all continents,” says Cindy Chimal, Criminal Intelligence Analyst, INTERPOL Environmental Security. “Their aim is always to supply whatever the market wants at as high a price as possible, no matter the cost to society or the environment.”
Protected species pay the price
The protected species targeted by organized crime also pay a high price – as high as extinction in some cases – and so does the wider ecosystem in their endemic regions. Rhinoceroses, for example, are one of the three most trafficked protected species in the world and today four out of five rhinoceros species are classed as either vulnerable or at critical risk of extinction. Endemic to the Gulf of California in Mexico, totoaba fish are less well known, but their swim bladders are highly sought after for use in traditional Asian, and they are illegally traded for higher prices than cocaine. Today, overfishing of totoaba has led to the near extinction of the vaquita porpoise, which is also found only in the Gulf of California. It is now the most endangered marine mammal on the planet, with an estimated population of less than ten.
Seasoned criminals and sophisticated techniques
To generate high potential profits, the criminals diversifying into wild flora and fauna often use existing international drugs or arms smuggling routes, where they have existing infrastructure and logistics and know the terrain – as well as corrupt officials that can be compromised and will turn a blind eye. They falsify cargo labels and customs declarations and mix legal and illegal goods. “Criminal groups shipping protected timber like rosewood out of the Americas, for example, often label it as an unprotected species or mix the two,” says Cindy Chimal. “They know that customs officials at busy seaports rarely have time for a thorough search, so they may also pack the load with cocaine or claim it includes perishables to make any search go even faster.” They are also highly creative when it comes to smuggling animal species, for example finches and other songbirds, sought after by collectors or for use in singing competitions. “As well as trafficking live birds, we know that some criminals have begun smuggling them in egg form,” she continues. “They use highly sophisticated techniques, concealing incubators in their luggage and selecting their routes and flights according to the exact hatching time of the species concerned.”
Global intelligence gathering
Gathering large volumes of this type of intelligence is one of the key aims of Operation Thunder, a month-long annual operation jointly coordinated by INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization and involving police, customs and other law enforcement agencies from over 130 countries worldwide. In 2024, the operation led to the seizure of almost 20,000 live animals, including big cats, primates, pangolins, reptiles and birds, and of hundreds of thousands of protected animal parts and derivatives, trees, plants, marine life and arthropods. The participating agencies also made 365 arrests and identified a number of criminal networks: six working in Asia, two in Latin America and two transnational networks running from Africa to Europe and Africa to Asia. Over 100 companies involved in the trafficking of protected species were also identified. “This kind of recurrent operation helps us build a clear intelligence picture of wildlife crime worldwide,” says Cindy Chimal. “In 2024, the main trends we saw included increased use of shell companies and online trading of animals and their parts, including on mainstream social media platforms and marketplaces.”
Unique transnational reach
Organized wildlife crime is almost always transnational, making INTERPOL uniquely positioned to lead the global fight against it. With their high-level environmental crime expertise and access to the biggest nominal database in the world, our specialist teams are able to bring national police forces together to share intelligence and facilitate bilateral or multilateral investigations. “We focus on the suspects, building profiles and crosschecking data to see whether they are a known offender in another jurisdiction,” adds Cindy Chimal.
The result may be the publication of a Purple Notice informing member countries about a new criminal modus operandi or a Red Notice alerting them to an internationally wanted fugitive. In one recent case, a Red Notice led to the arrest in Thailand of a Ukrainian woman smuggling 116 protected tortoises from Tanzania. After fleeing Thailand, the suspect was again arrested in Bulgaria and later extradited to Tanzania. The tortoises were also returned to their home country. “The successful end to this case is a clear illustration of INTERPOL’s international reach and leadership,” Cindy Chimal concludes. “We are the only organization with a mandate to combat transnational criminal networks on a global level and the only one able to leverage and share confirmed police data from countries right across the world.”
*The other members are the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Secretariat, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organization