According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, Vietnamese-led criminal syndicates operate in the illegal wildlife trade with sophisticated hierarchical structures involving syndicate heads, specialist transporters, independent operators, and workers. These networks have trafficked at least 56 tonnes of ivory seized in Vietnam and 20 tonnes seized en route to Vietnam since 2009, with actual trade volumes likely being much higher. Their operations span multiple African and Asian countries, using complex concealment methods such as hiding ivory in hollowed-out logs, fake stones, and agricultural products. The syndicates maintain extensive corruption networks that facilitate border crossings, with one ivory trafficker claiming to have successfully smuggled nearly 13.5 tonnes of illegal ivory in just three separate shipments from Mozambique to Vietnam in 2015, demonstrating the industrial scale of this criminal enterprise.

In 2017, Irish citizen Michael Hegarty received an 18-month prison sentence in the US followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a wildlife trafficking operation. Hegarty facilitated the illegal transportation and concealment of a libation cup carved from endangered rhinoceros horn from the US to the UK. In many jurisdictions, it is legal to trade wildlife products such as ivory domestically if they were acquired prior to the introduction of CITES regulations – but not to traffic them internationally. The illegal activity began in mid-April 2012, when Hegarty and an accomplice travelled with a Miami resident to a North Carolina auction. A second accomplice served as their bidder and successfully purchased a rhinoceros horn libation cup. After the cup was delivered to Hegarty and his first accomplice in Florida, the accomplice smuggled it out of the United States in his personal luggage. British authorities later arrested the accomplice and two other Irish nationals in London as they attempted to sell the cup to a buyer from Hong Kong SAR. Hegarty was subsequently apprehended through an INTERPOL Red Notice and extradited from Belgium to the US. His accomplice, currently serving time in England on separate charges, will face additional wildlife trafficking charges in Florida upon release.

In 2023, Vietnamese authorities confiscated over seven tonnes of elephant tusks smuggled via a well-known trafficking route from Angola. The shipment, which passed through Singapore before arriving in Haiphong City, was falsely declared as containing peanuts – a likely ruse by traffickers to mask its contents. This seizure follows another major discovery in Vietnam just weeks prior, when over 600kg of ivory was intercepted at Lach Huyen port. Despite Vietnam's ban on the trade of ivory and other endangered wildlife products, demand for items such as rhino horn, pangolin scales, and tiger parts continues to fuel the illegal market. While Vietnamese courts recently issued one of the country’s harshest sentences – 13 years’ imprisonment for smuggling more than 10 tonnes of wildlife products – trafficking remains widespread.

In February 2018, Chinese national Guan Zong Chen was sentenced to 19 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme to illegally export approximately US$700,000 worth of endangered wildlife products, including items made from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory, and coral, from the US to China. In addition to the prison sentence, Chen was ordered to forfeit the seized ivory and pay US$700,000 in substitute assets. Despite a prior conviction in China in 2009 for trafficking ivory carvings purchased in the US, which prevented him from traveling internationally, Chen continued his illicit trade by enlisting others to legitimately purchase wildlife products at auction houses across several US states and smuggle them illegally back to China. In many jurisdictions, it is legal to trade wildlife products such as ivory domestically if they were acquired prior to the introduction of CITES regulations – but not to traffic them internationally. Chen’s co-conspirators included Chinese national Jin Jie Yang, who pleaded guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to time served in 2015, and Carla Marsh, a Massachusetts shipping business owner, who also pleaded guilty and received one year of probation in 2016.

On May 31, 2018, five individuals – William McGinness, Paul Tallman, Rene Rizal, Wayne Andrews, and Alex Madriaga – were indicted in the US for conspiring to smuggle birds protected under the CITES from the US to Taiwan. According to the indictment, the group allegedly submitted false documentation to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to facilitate the illegal export of 90 protected birds, including species such as parrots, macaws, cockatoos, and corellas, from the Port of New Orleans. Some of the birds were packed in crates with misleading labels. The USFWS intercepted 14 of the birds at Houston Airport before they could be shipped. McGinness faced additional charges of bird smuggling and three counts of falsifying records under the Lacey Act, while Tallman was also charged with smuggling and one count of record falsification under the same law.

In October 2023, the UK Border Force played a pivotal role in Operation Thunder, a global enforcement initiative targeting the illegal wildlife trade. Over the course of the month-long operation, UK officers made 145 seizures involving thousands of illegal wildlife products banned under CITES with Heathrow Airport being a notable hotspot. These included 5.5 kg of ivory, 434 live plants, over 1,000 health supplements containing illegal plant and animal products, a ceremonial headdress made with big cat fur, vulture and falcon eggs, and 53 live CITES-listed birds.

In a landmark case for the UK, seafood trader Gilbert Khoo was convicted in 2020 for illegally trafficking approximately 5.3 million critically endangered European eels from Spain to East Asia via the UK, in what authorities estimate was a £53 million black market operation. This three-year investigation, led by Cefas’ Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) in collaboration with the UK Border Force and National Crime Agency, culminated in the first prosecution of its kind under the Trade in Animals and Related Products Regulations 2011. Khoo hid the live eels under other fish and exported them to Asia, evading strict export controls designed to protect the species. A major breakthrough occurred in 2017 when Border Force officials seized a 200 kg shipment of juvenile eels at Heathrow, destined for Hong Kong SAR. The FHI not only built the case but also arranged for the eels' safe repatriation to Spain. The case highlights both the scale of Environmental Crime involving endangered aquatic species and the critical role of coordinated enforcement in combating it.

In November 2024, UK authorities seized over 5,000 wild bird eggs in the country's largest-ever bust of its kind, highlighting the ongoing threat of illegal wildlife trade. This operation, part of the international crackdown known as Operation Pulka, began in Norway in 2023 and has since led to the seizure of over 56,000 eggs and the arrest of 16 individuals globally. Despite being outlawed under laws such as the UK’s Wildlife Countryside Act of 1981 and CITES regulations, the illicit collection and trade of wild bird eggs – especially from birds of prey prized for falconry – remains lucrative, driven by private collectors and international networks. Experts warn that the trade not only violates conservation laws but also contributes to the decline of already threatened bird populations, compounding threats from climate change, disease, and habitat loss.

Dubai serves as a prominent transit hub for ivory from Africa to Asian markets. The most common route identified in 2017 was from Harare, Zimbabwe, through Dubai, and onward to Hong Kong SAR. Nearly one-fifth of ivory seizures in Hong Kong were identified to have transited through United Arab Emirates airports, predominantly Dubai, before arriving. Smaller packages of ivory (less than 1 kilogram) often pass through Dubai's airport hidden in passenger clothing, while heavier consignments are placed in carry-on bags. Traffickers use special handmade vests with hidden compartments to move small pieces of ivory, taking advantage of Dubai's busy port and airport infrastructure where transit consignments are less likely to be thoroughly checked.

Great apes including orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas are trafficked to Dubai via air from central Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Guinea, and Nigeria) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia). Upon receiving an order, traffickers in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo notify "collector" counterparts to move animals by river or road to capital cities, where they're prepared for shipment with fraudulent CITES paperwork. Common air routes include direct flights to Dubai or flights from Ethiopia to Muscat, Oman, from where the animals are transported by land across the Hatta border. Smugglers often sedate the animals with veterinary drugs like ketamine. Prices vary significantly by species, with orangutans costing approximately US$15,000-$20,000, chimpanzees fetching around US$40,000, and bonobos and gorillas commanding between US$100,000-$250,000 in the United Arab Emirates black market.

The Chaimat network operated a sophisticated timber smuggling operation in Thailand that primarily trafficked protected Siamese rosewood to China via Laos and Vietnam. Their operation was highly organised - they used convoys of five vehicles where one scouted ahead for police checkpoints, three transported the illegally logged and trafficked timber, and another served as a decoy. Drivers were paid 20,000 baht (US$620) per trip, and a used-car dealership called "Big Car" owned by Kampanart's ex-wife Ketsirin supplied rotating vehicles to avoid detection. The network laundered nearly 1 billion baht (US$29 million) from Vietnam through currency exchangers in Laos into Thai bank accounts, with rosewood increasing in value by up to 900% when smuggled across borders, ultimately fetching up to US$80,000 per ton in China's booming hongmu furniture market. In 2014, Kampanart was on his way back from an abortive attempt to purchase Siamese rosewood when he was intercepted at a mobile checkpoint in what appeared to be a routine traffic stop. Police found 4.7 million bhat (about US$150 000), seven bank deposit books in Kampanart’s name and 10 ATM cards, as well as a book recording past transactions of Siamese rosewood and tiger body parts. A corresponding financial investigation which concluded in 2021 found that the crimes Kampanart had committed over the years were evidence that his assets had not been acquired honestly or legally. However, it proved more difficult to pursue a successful criminal prosecution for each of the cases owing to insufficient evidence, even though several individuals associated with the investigation had been arrested multiple times for possession of pangolins, ivory and Siamese rosewood and for breaches of wildlife and forestry legislation. Ultimately, the investigation was successful in identifying 115 assets accumulated by the family network that would be subject to forfeiture and become property of the state.

In September 2021, Dubai officials intercepted 64 falcons concealed behind boxes of vegetables at the Hatta border crossing with Oman. This illustrates a common smuggling route for falcons from the Arabian Peninsula into Dubai. Falcons are also trafficked by air from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia, with the United Arab Emirates recording 35 cases of birds trafficked through airports between 2009-2017. Smugglers employ creative methods such as sedating birds with sleeping pills, binding them with tape, and concealing them in modified suitcases with ice packs. Upon arrival, the birds are sold to wealthy clients, often in private, invite-only affairs at their residences, with a single smuggled bird potentially fetching up to US$400,000.

A significant concern in the illegal cheetah trade is the fraudulent misrepresentation of wild-caught animals as "captive-bred" to circumvent CITES regulations. One telling example reveals how 16 supposedly "captive-bred" cheetahs were exported from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to Armenia between 2009 and 2015, despite Bahrain having no known cheetah breeding facilities. This case illustrates how traffickers exploit legal loopholes, as only two registered cheetah breeding facilities exist worldwide (both in South Africa), and cheetahs notoriously breed poorly in captivity. Gulf facilities reported only 304 total captive births since 1994 with a 31% mortality rate for cubs under six months, and no births have been reported since 2016. The practice of labelling wild-caught cheetahs as captive-bred effectively masks their true origins and contributes to the continued decimation of wild populations in East Africa.

The Star Tiger Zoo in Chaiyaphum, Thailand, operated by Daoruang Chaimat, served as a front for wildlife trafficking operations moving endangered species between Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and China. While officially registered as a legitimate business in 2011, investigators believed the zoo supplied major trafficking networks, including the infamous Xaysavang network. Financial investigations revealed suspicious accounting - the zoo reported assets worth 23.84 million baht (US$763,000) in 2012 but claimed only 4 million baht in income against 6 million baht in expenses, effectively operating at a loss while paying no income taxes. A police raid uncovered illegal wildlife at the property, and Daoruang's Vietnamese connections through her biological father (who worked for Vietnam's Forestry Department) and adoptive father (employed by the State Bank of Vietnam) were found to have facilitated international trafficking routes for pangolins, tigers, ivory, and other endangered species.

In September 2022, a kingpin of wildlife trafficking – Boonchai Bach – was sentenced to five years in prison for wildlife trafficking. While Bach remains on the run from authorities, the case was a breakthrough for criminal cases against wildlife traffickers, marking a turn from a previous attempt to convict Bach in 2018 that was thrown out by the courts.  A professional smuggler controlling the Thai gateway via Laos to Vietnam, Bach and his family were involved in trafficking contraband from rhino horn to ivory from Africa. In some cases, Thai sex workers were used to smuggle the teeth and claws of lions out of South Africa, with the assistance of a corrupt airline worker in Johannesburg and a corrupt airport official in Bangkok. Following the first failed attempt to convict Bach, police pivoted to anti money-laundering tactics, using wealth investigations to identify criminal activity. They have since seized his vehicles and some US$11 millions in assets. Police and prosecutors hope that data from Bach’s seized assets can be utilised to build a larger, multi-country case.

Between 2014 and 2015, Zanzibar Port emerged as a significant transshipment hub for illegally logged Malagasy timber bound for Asian markets. Three major timber seizures during this period revealed that traffickers were using Zanzibar as a strategic transit point for timber originating from Madagascar and destined primarily for China and Hong Kong SAR. In a notable 2015 case, traffickers attempted to legitimise their shipment using fraudulent CITES export permits, discovered when they tried to use a certificate number designated for exporting livestock from Tanzania. This pattern reveals how wildlife traffickers exploit Tanzania's strategic port location and weaker regulatory oversight in Zanzibar to move contraband between Africa and Asia.

A landmark case of international cooperation led to the disruption of a sophisticated wildlife trafficking network when a Ukrainian woman was intercepted at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport with 116 endangered tortoises hidden in her luggage. The smuggled reptiles – including critically endangered pancake tortoises, radiated tortoises, and vulnerable Aldabra giant tortoises, all protected under CITES – were destined for the exotic pet trade. After fleeing Thailand before prosecution, the suspect was later apprehended in Bulgaria through an INTERPOL Red Notice and extradited to Tanzania in 2023. This case triggered a broader investigation that ultimately led to the arrest of 14 additional suspects from multiple countries including Egypt, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Tanzania, demonstrating the transnational nature of wildlife crime networks. After more than two years, the surviving tortoises were repatriated to Tanzania as evidence against the smugglers.

Between 2009 and 2014, Tanzania's elephant population was decimated by 60% due to rampant poaching, prompting the government to establish the National Taskforce on Anti-Poaching (NTAP) to disrupt wildlife trafficking networks. This strategy led to the September 2015 arrest of Yang Fenglan, a Chinese businesswoman known as the "Ivory Queen," who was convicted in 2019 of leading an Organised Crime syndicate that trafficked 860 elephant tusks valued at over $6 million. Despite never being caught with tusks or at a crime scene, prosecutors successfully built a case using financial investigations, property records, and testimony from witnesses including a watchman, taxi driver, and restaurant employee. Yang's conviction sent a powerful message to other wildlife trafficking kingpins and demonstrated Tanzania's commitment to combating the illegal wildlife trade.

Sri Lanka has recently emerged as both a source and transit hub in the illegal wildlife trade network, particularly for Indian star tortoises. This shift became evident in June 2017 when the Sri Lankan Navy intercepted a dinghy from India carrying 2,098 live star tortoises, followed by another seizure of 1,200 tortoises in Kalpitiya in December of the same year. The island nation's significance in the smuggling network was further confirmed when authorities seized 223 star tortoises near Colombo's international airport in October 2021, arresting two Indians and one Sri Lankan. Wildlife experts note that the Sri Lankan variety of star tortoise is particularly valued by collectors for its sharper shell design, commanding premium prices in the black market. Despite the elevation of star tortoises to CITES Appendix I in 2019, enforcement remains challenging, with most arrested smugglers simply paying fines without deeper investigation into trafficking networks.

In 2016-2019, the Wildlife Justice Commission conducted "Operation Dragon," a covert investigation that uncovered an extensive tortoise trafficking network spanning India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand. The operation identified 200 persons of interest and exposed eight criminal networks specialising in smuggling Indian star tortoises. A key breakthrough came when investigators recorded notorious wildlife trafficker Wasim Sheriff (alias Machli) attempting to sell 560 tortoises in a Bangkok mall, boasting of connections with airport insiders across multiple countries. This led to his arrest in October 2017 with 1,012 tortoises.

In March 2018, Spanish authorities in collaboration with EUROPOL dismantled a major transnational reptile trafficking network, seizing over 600 endangered or protected reptiles originating from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The investigation began when Dutch officials arrested three Spanish nationals smuggling 250 Mexican reptiles worth approximately US$186,000. The criminal network used "mules" to transport animals internationally and employed document falsification to "launder" protected species, even freezing dead specimens to reuse their legal documentation for similar trafficked species. This case demonstrates the sophisticated methods used by wildlife traffickers and the challenges authorities face in combating the global reptile trade, which represents 28% of all animals seized worldwide. It also exemplifies Spain’s role as a key transit and destination country for the illegal wildlife trade globally, and the importance of enforcement efforts in this area.

After eight years of coordinated efforts, the San Diego Zoo received eight critically endangered Fijian iguanas in April 2025 that had been seized from illegal wildlife traffickers in Spain in 2017. These iguanas were part of a larger confiscation of over 600 reptiles. The zoo's geneticists are now working to determine each iguana's origins to potentially incorporate them into conservation breeding programs or eventual repatriation. This case highlights both the persistent threat of reptile trafficking in the illegal pet trade and the complex international collaboration required between Spain's environmental authorities, Fijian government agencies, and conservation organisations to protect endangered species.

In April 2025, Spanish authorities rescued 19 exotic felines from a home in Majorca, arresting a Russian couple connected to an international wildlife smuggling ring. The raid uncovered a caracal, two servals, 16 hybrid cats, and travel documents for over 40 additional animals from Russia, Belarus, and China. This case exemplifies how social media has fuelled demand for exotic big cats as status symbols among wealthy individuals. According to authorities, “the detainees sold various animal species internationally through internet portals, including white tigers, black leopards, hyenas, and pumas”.

South Africa's lion bone trade exemplifies how legal wildlife markets can be exploited by criminal networks to facilitate broader trafficking operations. From 2016 to 2019, export records reveal that nearly half of all lion bones shipped from South Africa (which has the world’s only commercial lion-farming industry) were ostensibly destined for Laos but were actually rerouted to Vietnam, with shell companies linked to the notorious Xaysavang wildlife trafficking network serving as primary buyers. These trafficking operations employed sophisticated financial crime techniques: shipments were systematically undervalued (listing $50-100 per skeleton when actual values ranged from $1,250-2,150), permits were fraudulently reused past expiration dates, and consignments were routinely packed with more skeletons than declared. The five shell companies that purchased most lion bones were registered to fake addresses in Paksan, Laos (home base of the Xaysavang Network), yet Laotian customs recorded zero imports while Vietnamese records showed hundreds of skeletons arriving – demonstrating how traffickers manipulate international trade documentation to conceal illicit supply chains.

In 2018, a BBC investigation uncovered a deep web of corruption within South Africa’s judicial system that allegedly enables the illegal rhino horn trade. A whistle-blower known as “Fresh” testified to acting as a middleman between rhino horn traffickers and a court syndicate, facilitating bribes to lawyers, magistrates, and prosecutors to protect high-profile poachers like Dumisani Gwala. Despite Gwala’s arrest over three years ago with rhino horn in his possession, his trial has been repeatedly delayed, allegedly due to bribes paid to court officials. A confidential report submitted to the Magistrates' Commission suggests a broader pattern of racketeering involving senior judicial figures. Activists and investigators, such as Jamie Joseph and former police officer Jean-Pierre Roux, have also faced threats and job dismissals for exposing these networks. The inaction against those implicated threatens not only South Africa’s already dwindling rhino population but also the integrity of its entire justice system.