On the early morning of March 9, under the GACC command, Nanning Customs and Hefei Customs jointly carried out the “Safeguard 2020” campaign against the smuggling of wild animals and products. More than 150 anti-smuggling officers, divided in 17 action groups, busted up one smuggling ring of pangolin scales in Guangxi Region and Anhui Province, finally seizing 9 criminal suspects and 820 kilograms of smuggled pangolin scales.

Since COVID-19 epidemic outbreak, the GACC has been deploying the “Safeguard 2020” campaign across nationwide Customs to crack down on wild animal smuggling activities and support anti-epidemic efforts.

Pangolin is listed in Appendix I of the “Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (CITES). Nowadays, illegally-traded pangolin scales are mainly supplied to domestic markets of medicinal materials and sculpture collectibles.