Recently, Shenzhen Customs intercepted the smuggling of pangolin scales, totaling 53 kilograms.

On December 20, a white car with “Double-place-registered” license plates entered Shenzhen Huanggang Pass, when it was passing through  Customs’ auto-inspecting system, the alarm sounded.

Customs officers found the car carrying a few luggage and additionally 28 winding paper tubes in the second and third rows of seats.

Each of those paper tubes was in the size of one pillow, looking like big “silkworm pupas”, with exterior encapsulated by yellow sellotape and interior wrapped by a thick black plastic bag.

When opening the paper tubes with a knife, the officers found many brown scales therein.

Those opaque or translucent scales were all in an irregular shape like scallop or rhombus, 3cm in diameter and 1-2mm in thickness, smelling fishy.

By identification, the 53kg scales belong to pangolin, which is one of China’s Class-Ⅱ Protected Wild Animals.

Pangolin scales seized by Shenzhen Customs