LAGA’s work resulted in two more successful operations last week –  A Chinese national arrested with giant pangolin scales, and an ivory trafficker arrested with two elephant jaws, both trafficker still locked.

This week a notorious poacher that has enjoyed impunity for many years and kept being arrested and released by corruption was handed a 3 years imprisonment. This case was followed up jointly by WWF and LAGA.

Yesterday, we got a 6 months imprisonment prosecution of another Chinese pangolin scales exporter, and we try to get a second court case opened against him in a different town so hopefully we keep him in jail far longer.

But the best news is the conviction of a very persistent wildlife trafficker, that evaded justice for many years and vowed to put me personally “in jail” as vengeance.

A wealthy business man, he admitted to Ministry officials that he bribed his way out of the police cell.  He gained a monopoly over the live animal trade in Cameroon for many years, as the President of the Syndicate of Live Wildlife Exploiters in Cameroon.  His animals trading business card bears the symbol of the ruling party and his position as its president in his subdivision.

After indeed almost getting me to jail through corruption, (he still tries…) and after different forms of threat and collusion with wildlife officials, he got convicted yesterday of  facilitating the illegal exportation of protected species  and transfer of a government-issued capture permit to a Chinese trafficker and slammed 3 months in jail. We are all hope that the more serious trial again him, where he is accused of an illegal export of African grey parrots and use of a falsified document, will land him a more sever punishment.