Pangolins were being sold on the black market in Asia at prices as high as $1,000 for the entire pangolin.
The pangolin is considered to be a delicacy in Asia and is scales are used for various medicinal purposes.
In a span of 18 months, intelligence reports claim that a criminal trafficking organization in Malaysia captured 22,000 pangolins to sell on the black market.
In Vietnam, between 40,000 to 60,000 pangolins were believed to have been caught by traffickers in 2011.
(Additional prices of endangered animals.)
Source: Audrey Garric, “Pangolins under threat as black market trade grows,” Guardian, March 12, 2013.
In the Malaysian district of Kota Setar, police reported seizing 4,194 computer gaming machines that were used to process illegal gambling activities between January to August 2012. The machines were seized over the course of 708 operations.
During the same time period in 2011, police seized 1,230 computers with illegal gambling games installed. Police conducted 204 raids during that time period.
Source: Fariza Uzmat, “4,194 gaming computers seized,” New Strait Times, September 25, 2012.
According to law enforcement officials in Malaysia, the human smuggling business in the country is worth $323 Million (1 Billion Malaysian Ringgit).
The price to smuggle a person out of Malaysia by airplane is reported to be between $70,000 to $90,000.
(See more human smuggling prices here)
Source: Farrah Naz Karim and Alang Bendahara, “Undeclared millionaires,” New Straight Times, September 11, 2012.
Between 2000 and 2010, over 54,000 wild birds were trafficked through the Solomon Islands and into the global wildlife trade, according to wildlife monitoring organization Traffic. Many of the birds, such as parrots and cockatoos, are not native to the islands and are believed to have been smuggled into the country.
93 percent of the birds during the time period were imported to Malaysia and Singapore.
Source: AFP, “Wild birds ‘smuggled through Solomon Islands’,” Google News, July 17, 2012.
The Commissioner of the Federal CID of Malaysia reported that there were a total of 80 officially reported cases of kidnapping for ransom in the country between 2010 and May 15 of 2012. Out of the 80 cases, 59 kidnapping cases were solved and 61 kidnapping victims were released after either police action or the ransom being paid.
Source: “Kidnap cases on the decline,” Asia One, May 29, 2012.
There are an estimated 350,000 people who are addicted to drugs in Malaysia in 2012, according to a report by Reuters. Due to a high rate of relapse in the country, the number of drug addicts could rise to 500,000 in 2015.
Back in 2006, there were 19,369 people who were officially classified by the government as drug addicts in Malaysia.
Source: Anuradha Raghu, “Malaysia mosque a source of hope for heroin addicts,” Reuters, May 2, 2012.
The number of drug smuggling arrests by officials at the Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has been increasing over the course of 4 years.
Police stopped 16 attempts of drug smuggling in 2008, which rose to 39 cases in 2009, and 63 drug smuggling attempts in 2010. In 2011, police stopped 52 cases of drug smuggling at the Jakarta Airport.
Police report that a majority of the drug smuggling cases involves drug syndicates operating from Malaysia.
Source: Multa Fidus, “Malaysian syndicates dominate drug smuggling in RI,” Jakarta Post, April 26, 2012.
In 2012, there were an estimated 170,000 drug users in Malaysia. A majority of the intravenous drug users in the country abused heroin.
Of all the drug arrests in the country, about half were for abusing opiates.
The heroin that is used in Malaysia is trafficked from Myanmar, Laos and West Asia.
Source: Liz Gooch, “Malaysian Mosque Is Also a Methadone Clinic,” New York Times, March 28, 2012.
A human trafficking ring in Malaysia was charging men between $5,849 (18,000 Malaysian Ringgit) to $6,499 (20,000 Ringgit) for Vietnamese women to marry. The women were originally told that they would be working as waitresses before being held by the traffickers and sold off to the men with false documents.
Source: Bernama, “Human trafficking syndicates using new tactics,” Boreno Post, March 24, 2012.
10,500 people were arrested for drug crimes in Malaysia between 2009 and 2011, according to the Home Ministry.
Police statistics show that 2,955 people were arrested in 2009, and 3,700 people were arrested in 2010. The drug smuggling arrests increased again in 2011 as 3,845 people were arrested that year.
Source: “Hishammuddin: 10,500 drug traffickers detained since 2009,” The Star, March 19, 2012.
