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Arrested traffickers with lion and leopard skins
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Three people were arrested on the 13th of
April 2015, in Meiganga for trafficking in a two leopard skins and a lion skin.
Also seized from the traffickers were two crocodile skins during the operation
that was carried out by wildlife
officials of the Mbere Divisional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife working
in collaboration with the Gendarmerie Territorial Brigade. One of the
traffickers left Garoua with some of the wildlife products on board a grey
Toyota car and arrived Meiganga where he got in contact with an accomplice.
The
arresting team tracked the car from the moment it arrived Meiganga to a
location near a fuellng station and the
three traffickers were arrested as they pulled the skins from bags full with
grains of maize. According to one of the members of the team, they were about to start doing business when
wildlife officials quickly move in and got them. The skins had been hidden
among grains of maize to enable the 37-year old
trafficker who left Garoua to pass through check points without being
discovered as transporting parts of protected species. He equally had
supporting documents proving he was travelling with maize.
Prior
investigations had established that an illegal sale of lion, crocodile and
leopard skins was about to be carried out in the town and wildlife officials
teamed up with the gendarmerie to stop
the transaction and arrest the traffickers. The operation was carried out with
technical support from The Last Great Ape Organization (LAGA). If found guilty
the three face up to 3 years imprisonment for trafficking in protected wildlife
species. The illegal trade in these species is seriously affecting their ability
to survive and the lion is facing serious survival challenges in the country
with just a few hundred remaining in the wild in the Northern part of the
country.
The trade is trans-boundary with Nigeria being
one of the main destinations for the lion skins coming from Cameroon. According
to sources close to the case, one of the traffickers has a number of
international connections in Nigeria, Chad and beyond, attesting to the
international character of their business that is well organized. The Meiganga
based trafficker, according to the same sources, is the main buyer of the
products while the Garoua-based trafficker is the main supplier and collector.
He equally supplies wildlife contraband to clients based in Yaounde and Douala.
He is equally suspected of gold trafficking.
On
the other hand, the 38-year old Meiganga-based trafficker owns a restaurant at
the heart of the town. Traffickers generally use a front business as a cover
for their underground activity and restaurants are superb areas to establish
contacts with buyers and sellers. Last year, the same kind of situation was
observed in Ebolowa where two were arrested for ivory trafficking. One of them
owned a restaurant as a front business and in the restaurant, a piece of carved
ivory was hanging free as an advert for the kind of business that was run by
the owner of the restaurant.
The
Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is expected to push charges against the three
who are presently behind bars while the establishment of a case file is in
process. The Ministry seems to be gunning for effective law enforcement efforts in the wildlife
sector and many consider this to be the a swift short term measure to hamper
the illicit trade in parts of protected wildlife species.
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