Italian police quash bird smuggling ring

World
Europe

A bird-smuggling group selling rare and protected birds to poachers and restaurants to prepare expensive rare gourmet dishes has been dismantled, European Police Office (Europol), claimed.

Police arrested nine people this week in Reggio Calabria in southern Italy on suspicion of having an alliance with a criminal network specializing in the illegal trade of protected wild animals. The smuggling racket operated between Malta and Italy.

Arrests were made during an Operational Anti-Poaching Unit of the Carabinieri Corps and Carabinieri Forestry and Provincial Command of Reggio Calabria joint operation.

The network mainly dealt with songbirds protected under the Berne Convention. Europol supported the investigation by providing intelligence and analysis services to Italian law enforcement authorities.

“In recent years the criminal group had built up a network of illegal buyers and sellers of protected birds in northern Italy and Malta,” Europol maintained in a statement.

Revealing the modus operandi, officials claimed that poachers identified the areas with a high bird population and laid traps like food to attract as many birds as possible.

Trapped birds were caged, and their distress call attracted the entire flock. Poachers would then use a net to capture the whole congregation of birds. “It is estimated that a poacher can capture no less than 200-300 birds per day, but as just a few species are profitable on the illegal market, the majority of them were culled,” Europol revealed.

In 2016, more than 3,800 dead specimens of various protected species were seized during a police operation. A year later, around 3,000 birds including 300 dead were seized. Europol estimated more than 80,000 birds had been sold in recent years causing significant environmental damage in the region.

EU set up a four-year policy cycle in 2014 to ensure greater continuity in the fight against cross-border organized crime. The EU Council decided to extend the cycle to 2018-21 to tackle organized crimes including illegal trade in wildlife.

Europe has been trying to control the massive illegal trade of birds in recent years. A study by International Fund for Animal Welfare found a vast network of online trade of wildlife products in countries like the UK, Germany, France, and Russia.

All the species traded online in these countries were either banned or restricted by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Nearly one-third or 3,337 of existing bird species are traded internationally for the pet trade. Of these species, 266 have been listed under the threatened category.

[Top Image: Protected birds seized during a joint operation by Italian law enforcement agencies and Europol. /Europol Photo]