(Photo: Phill Magakoe/AFP)
Between 2016 and 2018, the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg had the second largest number of seizures of illegal commodities of all African airports and is considered a major trading center for illegal commodities, especially wildlife products. In terms of rhino horns and drugs, the largest number of seizures took place at OR Tambo.
This was found in a recent report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The report, titled Convergence of wildlife crime and other forms of transnational organised crime in Eastern and Southern Africa convergence of wildlife crimeis a summary of research into wildlife trafficking conducted between January 2021 and August 2022 in ten countries across East and Southern Africa.
The author, Alastair Nelson, a senior analyst at Global Initiative, conducted 105 interviews with government officials, staff of multilateral or bilateral organizations, non-governmental organization (NGO) workers and people in the private sector, all of whom have a role in combating or reducing play wildlife crime.
The report found that corruption and money laundering are typical of organized crime and that wildlife crimes generally receive light sentences compared to other forms of serious crime.
“Some crime networks first explore the terrain by illegally trading wildlife products before moving on to more serious criminal activities,” the report said.
“However, the current trend in wildlife crime is increasingly sophisticated crime networks, which use increasingly sophisticated methods to smuggle a range of products across multiple borders to reach destination markets.”
OR Tambo-lughawe
While specific research was not conducted on illegal trade at OR Tambo Airport, two incidents were highlighted during the interviews where abalone was illegally traded at the airport.
One incident involved bribes being paid directly to customs officials to allow marked bags to pass through a scanner to be transported to Hong Kong. These bags contained dried abalone. The fee paid was said to be approximately R1 500 per bag.
One of the investigators pointed out that this is an exceptionally small amount to take for such a big risk. “This indicates that this is a regular occurrence,” says the report.
In the second incident, a shipping agent was involved in the smuggling of dried abalone, rhino horn and drugs from OR Tambo airport to Hong Kong.
Perlemoenhandel
(Photo provided by the Falcons)
According to the report, South Africa is the global hotspot for clandestine abalone trade, with gangs largely controlling the 30-year-old market. Over the years, the market has developed into a “structured, profitable and sometimes violent system”.
The abalone harvested on the Cape coast is one of the most expensive varieties in the world. This is because it is large, caught in the wild and also dries well.
Perlemoen is in many cases used as a means of barter for services or to obtain other illegal products, such as drugs and firearms.
Usually, local gangs sell or barter the wet abalone directly to Chinese buyers. In Cape Town, the wet abalone can be sold to Chinese buyers for between R2 000 and R2 200 per kilogram.
Nelson conducted interviews with Western Cape gang members and it came to light that these gangs use hired killers from Chinese crime organizations in Gauteng to carry out assassinations on their behalf, with abalone used as payment, the report states.
