Between April 2012 to April 2013, security services in the United Kingdom conducted over 675 seizures of wildlife items that were being trafficked into the country.
The following is a small sample of the contraband items that were seized:
- 326 items made with ivory.
- Rhino horn that was worth $1.6 Million (£1 Million).
- 466 Hermann’s tortoises
- 750 kilograms of coral form Vietnam
- Monkey Skulls
- A Rolls Royce upholstered with alligator skin.
- 126,000 pots of a weight-loss pill and 15,120 pots of a sports supplement for using rare orchids as ingredients.
(More prices of animals sold on the black market.)
Source: Victoria Turk, “Bear Bile, Seahorses, and Tortoise Jelly: The UK Had a Record Year for Wildlife Busts,” Motherboard, November 16, 2013.