The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a prominent UK-based environmental NGO, has hailed the incarceration of Teo Boon Ching, a key figure in the illegal wildlife trade in Asia, as a significant blow to the illicit trade. Paul Newman, Senior Press and Communications Officer at EIA released a statement in which the organisation expressed its satisfaction with the development.
Teo Boon Ching, known by the moniker ‘Godfather’ within the criminal wildlife trade network, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a New York court due to his extensive involvement in trafficking rhinoceros horns. The EIA had originally unveiled the extent of Teo’s illicit activities half a decade ago, contributing substantial intelligence to U.S. enforcement agencies concerning his modus operandi and operations.
Quoting Newman, “This is a commendable result and takes a key player out of the hugely profitable wildlife trafficking business.” The Executive Director of EIA UK, Mary Rice, also commended the sentencing, acknowledging that Chinese and Vietnamese organised crime networks had exploited Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, as conduits for smuggling illegal wildlife from Africa to Asia. The arrest and sanctions against Teo Boon Ching and his alleged trafficking organisation were considered a substantial setback to their operations.
Teo’s illicit activities encompassed the international trafficking and smuggling of rhinoceros horns, ivory, and pangolin scales. He was apprehended as a result of an undercover operation during which he conspired to transport, distribute, sell, and smuggle over 219kg of rhinoceros horns valued at more than $2.1 million.
According to EIA investigations, Teo had been part of the transnational illegal wildlife trade for over two decades. He provided concealment and packing services to criminal networks involved in smuggling elephant ivory, rhino horns, and pangolin scales into Asia via Malaysian ports. Newman further emphasised, “Teo first appeared on the law enforcement radar in 2015 for ivory trafficking, and the full extent of his activities was revealed in EIA’s 2018 report, ‘Exposing the Hydra.'” EIA’s undercover investigators documented his role as a specialised transporter assisting Vietnamese and Chinese criminal syndicates.
Quoting Newman once more, “Teo boasted to them that, as of 2017, he had provided clearance services for approximately 80 containers, with only one seizure since he started operations.” He also claimed to have played a significant logistics role in the recovery of two shipments of pangolin scales linked to the seizure of 7.2 tonnes of elephant ivory in Hong Kong in July 2017. EIA’s investigations indicated that Teo had strong connections with Customs officials at Johor Port, facilitating customer access to the Customs Clearance Warehouse for verifying goods upon the arrival of wildlife shipments. After clearance, the consignments were moved to Teo’s warehouse for repacking into multiple standard air cargo packages for onward transportation. He had also established connections with individuals involved in the acquisition and distribution of illicit wildlife commodities in Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and Laos.
