Codenamed Operation Thunderstorm, a massive amount of illegally-obtained timber and wildlife was seized by International police agency Interpol.
Several tons of timber, along with thousands of live animals, ivory, and pangolin scales, worth millions of dollars, were seized from 92 countries. Over 1,400 traffickers were identified in the scheme - exposed over a monthlong global crackdown.
"In this operation, these countries focused during the month of May on all sort of wildlife crimes whether they be plants, animals, timber," said Sheldon Jordan, Canada's director general of Wildlife Enforcement. "The results were spectacular."
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Jordan says that wildlife crime is the fourth largest crime by value in the world, estimated to be worth $115 billion a year.
The 92 participating nations were from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North and South America. Officers searched cars, trucks, boats and containers, sometimes using sniffer dogs and X-ray scanners.
Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said that wildlife traffickers use the same routes as other criminals, "often hand-in-hand with tax evasion, corruption, money laundering and violent crime."
The amount of wildlife seized was extraordinary: 43 metric tons of wild meat - including bear, elephant, crocodile, whale and zebra - 1.3 tons of elephant ivory, 27,000 reptiles, almost 4,000 birds, 48 live primates, 14 big cats and the carcasses of seven bears including two polar bears. The seizure also included eight tons of pangolin scales. Pangolins are the world's most illegally-trafficked animals, as their scales are highly sought in Asian cuisine.
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