KLHK Arrests Smuggler 360 Kg Pangolin Scale

KLHK officers showed confiscated evidence from the case of smuggling pangolin scales in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. (ANTARA/HO-Ministry of Environment and Forestry)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) has arrested the third perpetrator in connection with the smuggling of 360 kilograms of pangolin scales in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

"We continue to develop cases and continue to explore the possibility of the involvement of other parties in cases of criminal trafficking of wildlife protected by law in the form of pangolin scales in South Kalimantan," said Head of the KLHK Law Enforcement Center for the Kalimantan Region, David Muhammad, as reported by ANTARA, Monday, July 10.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry arrested the perpetrator with the initials AT aged 34 in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Saturday (8/7).

Currently, a total of three suspects have been arrested for smuggling 360 kilograms of pangolin scales, namely AT (34), AF (42), and RS (41).

"The suspect AT was deposited in the Banjarmasin Police Detention Center, while evidence in the form of two cell phones was secured at the Section I Law Enforcement Center Post in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan," said David.

Based on the KLHK investigation, AT has been hunting for pangolins in the forest in the Tenggarong area, East Kalimantan.

The suspect admitted that he had accommodated the public if anyone sold the animals or pangolin scales directly.

When the pangolin scales were quite a lot of between 10 and 25 kilograms at his house, AT immediately contacted the suspect AF to be transported and sold to Banjarmasin with a price range of IDR 700 thousand to IDR 1 million per kilogram.

"This pangolin scales trading incident based on AT's recognition has been going on since 2020 and has been sent several times," concluded David.

The Director General of Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Rasio Ridho Sani, emphasized that the smuggling of pangolin scales is a threat to biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability and causes enormous economic losses.

Pangolins are animals protected by law and are included in the list of Apendiks species I CITES which are prohibited from being traded given its important role in controlling the ecosystem as pangolins eat termites, ants and other insects.

If one kilogram of dried pangolin scales equals four live pangolins, the 360 kilograms of scales that are secured are the same as 1,440 live pangolins that were killed.

The results of a study on the economic valuation of wildlife by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry together with experts from the Bogor Agricultural Institute stated that each pangolin is worth IDR 50.6 million.