Between 2006 and 2017, some 8,500 rhinos were killed by poachers worldwide, but the actual tally is certainly even higher as many kills go undetected. More than 80 percent of these crimes were committed in South Africa. This current wave of rhino killings and horn smuggling focuses on South Africa’s Kruger National Park where the great majority of Africa’s rhinos live. It serves a seemingly insatiable consumer demand in Asia, particularly in Vietnam and China.
HORN TRAFFICKING
Updated date: August 21, 2019
Updated date: August 21, 2019
The impetus for the current illicit trade can be traced to 2003 when a number of Vietnamese came to South Africa and applied for permits to hunt rhinos. In terms of CITES regulations, this was a perfectly legal practice as the organization sanctions an annual quota of South African White Rhinos to be hunted and allows for the horns to be exported back to the hunters’ home countries to be displayed as personal trophies. The Vietnamese hunts were a sham, however, and simply exploited a loophole in the system. In these “pseudo hunts” as they came to be known, the horns would be exported legally, but instead of ending up in someone’s trophy room, once landed in Vietnam they would be cut up and sold on the medicinal black market at enormous profit, not for the stooge who pulled the trigger, but for the syndicates who sent him or her.
The system worked well. For about a decade, more and more pseudo hunters landed in South Africa—many had never even held a gun prior to their arrival—and with the help of willing South African hunting safari operators, they would shoot a rhino and get the horn out of the country.
Updated date: October 1, 2019
The pseudo hunting loophole allowed Chinese and Vietnamese syndicates to take root in South Africa, and when the South African authorities eventually did start cracking down on the pseudo hunts, they simply moved over the border into Mozambique where, in an environment of even greater endemic corruption, they continue to run their nefarious affairs.
Criminal activity did not stop in South Africa where a relatively small number of ruthless game farmers continued to supply horns to the syndicates, either via a chain of middlemen or in some cases, directly to black market operators in Vietnam. But by far the larger slice of the horn smuggling trade is now run from the Mozambican side of the border. The poachers, the foot soldier link in the contraband chain, are organized into small gangs who enter South Africa to kill rhinos, hack off their horns and then move back into Mozambique with their bounty. The poaching gangs are run by controllers—local kingpins or middlemen—who then supply a chain of buyers who move the horns via an intricate and ever-changing network of transit countries to the syndicate bosses in China and Vietnam.
SHIFTING SMUGGLING ROUTES
Although some smuggling routes have remained in place for several years, as certain transit points become more difficult for the criminals, so new transit points are opened up to exploit inefficient and corrupt officialdom and other weaknesses along the chain.
For example in the 2010–2012 period, in addition to the established transit network in the east that included countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China (including Hong Kong) and the Philippines, routes via the UK, Germany and Austria were also being used. Later, the European transit points began to shut down and West African countries like and Guinea and Nigeria began to play a role.
By 2016–2017, however, the movement of African horns was focused almost exclusively on the Southern and East African nexus of transit points, directly with those in China and Southeast Asia, This includes Vietnam, where—devoid of its own wild rhinos since the last survivor was shot in 2019—is not only a major consumer destination and trafficking point into China, but also a shopping venue for Chinese visitors who are significant buyers of rhino horn products manufactured in Vietnam
Smuggling routes for horn poached in India have also changed—previously the route to market in China tended to be via Nepal, but Myanmar, has for the moment, become the transit point. Nepalese authorities have taken stern action against horn smugglers: in October 2013, 14 alleged members of a Nepal-Tibet cross-border smuggling enterprise were arrested— they were believed to have killed more than 12 rhinos over six years; while in June 2016, a Nepalese court sentenced a rhino poacher to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the killing of 21 rhinos.
Updated date: August 21, 2019
Updated date: August 21, 2019
The data shows that transport by air is the most commonly used method to move horn quickly from source countries via transit points and on to the end-user markets. Countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya play pivotal roles in the transit networks, as they have direct air (and sea route) links with a number of Asian countries. South Africa too has important air and sea route links with Asia, particularly via the Middle East Gulf States. Although primarily a source country, South Africa is often used as a transit point for horn poaching in neighboring southern African states. Millions of passengers move through Africa’s major airports every year, and although some horn is intercepted, much of it passes through undetected. In Asia, airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam are proven key transit points in the illicit supply chain, while China’s Hong Kong and Beijing airports and Bangkok in Thailand also play a major part in moving contraband hornAfrican harbors also play an important role in horn smuggling, often together with other contraband wildlife products, substantiating the view that trafficking rings are active in many areas of the illegal wildlife trade. The majority of horn seizures, for instance, are made alongside ivory, while it has also been found amongst leopard skins, pangolin scales, and teeth from African big cats.
Before horn can leave African exit points by air or sea, it has to be moved as rapidly as possible away from the crime scene and it seems that anything available is used. Taxis, private vehicles, buses, and even ambulances are all part of the quick movement of horns to the middlemen buyers. Most interceptions have happened in South Africa and Mozambique, but in one instance horn strapped to and concealed in the engine of a criminal’s car was apprehended at a border post between South Africa and Eswatini. Vehicles, including motorcycles, are also used to move horn between countries in Asia, particularly at border crossings between Vietnam and China where, again, rhino horn is often part of a mixed consignment including contraband such big cat claws and teeth.
Updated date: August 21, 2019
Previously, whole horns were smuggled to their destinations. This still happens, but Chinese syndicates operating out of South Africa now also package contraband horn into consumer-ready products prior to shipment to Asia. Horn is cut into smaller pieces, ground into dust or fashioned into bracelets and beads—a new twist in smuggling that has also made it easier to pass off fake rhino horn made from bovine-derived horn products to gullible Asian consumers. This growing trend in fake goods makes it even more difficult for police and customs officials to disrupt the cross border movement of contraband rhino horn products.
The versatility of smugglers’ attempts to disguise horns in transit is extraordinary, and as one ruse is uncovered by police and customs, tactics are quickly adapted to exploit other weaknesses in the system. Some of the known smuggling methods include:
- wrapping horns in aluminum foil and plastic
- smearing them with toothpaste or shampoo, or coating them in wax, to hide the stench of decay
- disguising horns as curios and toys
- hiding them with other products such as nuts
- hiding them in coils of electric wire
- hiding them in wine boxes
- hiding them in consignments of wood
- concealing them in imitation electronic and machine parts
Multiple transit points, luggage drops, and exchanges are used to cover the tracks of the smugglers’ routes. Those willing to help or turn a blind eye for a share of the bounty are all part of the strategy, with customs officials, airline staff and airport police are often being recruited to ease the passage of contraband. Smugglers also tend to fly at busy times when airport resources and personnel are stretched. In one well-known incident, two Vietnamese traffickers were arrested when they tried to smuggle 18 rhino horns through OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg 30 minutes before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, hoping that customs officials would be distracted by the spectacle on television.
Updated date: August 21, 2019
Currently, the Asian demand for rhino horn focusses predominantly on two countries: China and Vietnam, where ancient and latter-day beliefs in the medicinal powers of horn—for fever-reduction, as a cancer treatment, as health tonics and to cure hangovers among others—have created a powerful consumer market. The past 15-20 years have also witnessed the rapid growth of well-heeled citizens whose new-found wealth has further fueled demand. For these nouveau riche, rhino horn is a coveted, rare commodity and its conspicuous use confers great social status on those who possess it. Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) are now prime manufacturing centers for carvings, libation cups, bracelets, beads, and bangles as well as fake antiques and horn ground into powder. These products are primarily for Chinese buyers.
