Jailing of ‘Godfather’ Teo seen as major blow to illegal wildlife trade

Teo Boon Ching in the hands of Thai police in June 2022 before he was extradited to the US to face trial for trafficking in wildlife. (Reuters pic)

PETALING JAYA: The jailing of a 58-year-old Malaysian dubbed a “Godfather” in the illegal wildlife trade last month has ended a two-decade run of trafficking in rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and pangolin scales across the world.

Teo Boon Ching was known as “Zhang”, “Dato Sri” and “Godfather”, according to US authorities, who described him as being part of an international conspiracy for large-scale wildlife trafficking.

According to the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, Teo specialised in trafficking and smuggling rhinoceros horns, elephant ivory and pangolin scales to clandestine markets, with the illegal goods fetching exorbitant prices.

The international NGO said Teo had been in the business for more than two decades and played a key role in logistics and helping to conceal and pack the goods for several criminal networks which smuggled the contraband items into Asia through Malaysian ports.

He was alleged to have used Southeast Asian nations as transit hubs, as he later became linked to major seizures of pangolin scales and ivory in Hong Kong.

A ‘specialist transporter’

The EIA described him as “a specialist transporter” assisting Vietnamese and Chinese syndicates in trafficking wildlife between Africa and Asia. He claimed in 2017 to have cleared 80 containers, with only one seized since he started operations.

Teo first came into the news in Thailand in 2015 when he was arrested with about 135kg of ivory in tow, valued at over RM650,000 at the time.

However, he was only punished with a fine and appeared to have carried on with business as usual.

Seven years later, in June 2022, he was detained by Thai authorities again and extradited to the US.

Before his indictment, Malaysian police said checks found that Teo did not commit any crimes in Malaysia. “Surveillance will continue to be conducted,” Bukit Aman said in a statement last October.

Meetings in Malaysia

However, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, Damian Williams, said Teo had held several meetings in Malaysia and elsewhere with an undercover agent to negotiate the sale of rhinoceros horns.

A US government statement said the confidential source met with Teo in Malaysia in July 2019.

“During those meetings, Ching (Teo) stated that he served as a middleman, acquiring rhinoceros horns poached by co-conspirators in Africa and shipping them to customers around the world for a per-kilogram fee,” the statement said.

He also promised the confidential source “as long as you have cash, I can give you the goods in 1-2 days” and sent the confidential source numerous photographs of rhinoceros horns available for sale and shipment, the statement said.

In August 2019, the confidential source bought 12 rhinoceros horns from Teo which were delivered in a suitcase in Thailand.

Teo was arrested in June last year and extradited to the US four months later.

Last month, Teo pleaded guilty in the US district court in New York to one charge of conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking of at least 219kg of rhinoceros horns with an estimated value of about US$2 million. He was sentenced to 18 months’ jail. - FMT